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"Just back from the south yourself, aren't you?" I countered. "Sure," airily. "But I wasn't there to butt in on your game. Did you find that Skeels was Clayte?" I merely looked over the flame of my match at that small-town society man, smiling back at me with a show of polite interest. "Go on," Worth interpreted. "Vandeman knows all about it.
Here, it was limousines; more than one noble chariot filled with members of the faction who'd helped to rush Vandeman into office over the claims of older members rolled discredited down the drive. Yet a ball is the hardest thing in the world to kill; like a lizard, if you break it in two, the head and tail go right on wriggling independently.
Roughly assured that only a few thousands had been used by Vandeman, I stuck the handles into his fist and trailed along after his quick strides. Edwards followed me. Laura Bowman opened the door to us; she stopped Edwards on the porch. And then I saw my children meet. I hadn't meant to; but after all, what matter? They didn't know I was on earth.
Vandeman had been about to sit; his half bent knees straightened out again; he stood beside the chair and spoke irritably. "Told you, Boyne, if you meddled with that coroner's verdict you'd get your employer in the devil of a tight place. Nobody had any reason for wanting Worth's father out of the way except Worth, himself. Frankly, I think you're wrong. But everything that I can do of course "
Worth let that pass, though I could see he wasn't convinced by Vandeman's sentimentalities, any more than I was. After the man had gone, I turned on Worth sharply, with, "Why the devil did you tell that pink-tea proposition about your dealings with the Van Ness Avenue bank?" "Safety valve, I guess. I get up too heavy a load of steam, and it's easy to blow it off to Vandeman.
Boyne" Vandeman missed the sarcasm "when I got back to this town to-day, what do you suppose I found? The story going around that a quarrel with Worth, over money, drove his father to take his own life." "That's my business here," I nodded. And when he looked his surprise, "To stop such stories." He stared at me, frankly puzzled for a moment, then said,
Ina Vandeman wheeled where she stood and faced the room, both hands thrown up, laughing. "It was meant to be a joke a great, big foolish joke!" her high treble rang out. "Bron's here somewhere. Wait. He'll tell you better than I could. At a masquerade people do they do foolish things.... They " "Is Bronse Vandeman here?" I questioned Fong Ling.
And the next moment, this figure took off its mask and showed the face of Bronson Vandeman. Dead silence all about us; Capehart loosened his grip, abashed but still truculent. "Dang it all, Mr. Vandeman, if you didn't want to get mussed up, what made you fight like that?" "Fight?" Vandeman found his voice. "Who wouldn't? I was late, and you " "Bron!"
The orchestra swung into "I'll Say She Does." "Just time for one." Vandeman guided his bride neatly out between the chairs, and they moved away. I turned from watching them to find Worth asking Mrs. Bowman to dance. "Oh, Worth, dearest! I ought to let one of the girls have you, but "
Across, there at the Gilbert place was Worth himself, charging around the grounds with Vandeman and a lot of other decorators, pruning shears in hand, going for a thicket of bamboos that shut off the vegetable garden. At one side Barbara stood alone, looking, it seemed to me, rather depressed. I made for her. She met me with, "I know what you've been doing.
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