His voice was deep and pleasant, but Bobby had often remarked that it, like Paredes's eyes, was too reserved.
It seemed never to call on its obvious powers of expression. Its accent was noticeable only in a pleasant,
polished sense.
"Hartley," Bobby explained, "is dining with us."
Paredes let no disapproval slip, but Graham hastened to explain.
"Bobby and I have an engagement immediately after dinner."
"An engagement after dinner! I didn't understand--"
"Let's think of dinner first," Bobby said. "We can talk about engagements afterward. Perhaps you'll have a
cocktail here while we decide where we're going."
"The aperitif I should like very much," Paredes said. "About dinner there is nothing to decide. I have arranged
everything. There's a table waiting in the Fountain Room at the C---- and there I have planned a little surprise
for you."
He wouldn't explain further. While they drank their cocktails Bobby watched Graham's disapproval grow. The
man glanced continually at his watch. In the restaurant, when Paredes left them to produce, as he called it, his
surprise, Graham appraised with a frown the voluble people who moved intricately through the hall.
"I'm afraid Paredes has planned a thorough evening," he said, "for which he'll want you to pay. Don't be
angry, Bobby. The situation is serious enough to excuse facts. You must go to the Cedars to-night. Do you
understand? You must go, in spite of Paredes, in spite of everything."
"Peace until train time," Bobby demanded.
He caught his breath.
"There they are. Carlos has kept his word. See her, Hartley. She's glorious."
A young woman accompanied the Panamanian as he came back through the hall. She appeared more foreign
than her guide--the Spanish of Spain rather than of South America. Her clothing was as unusual and striking
as her beauty, yet one felt there was more than either to attract all the glances in this room, to set people
whispering as she passed. Clearly she knew her notoriety was no little thing. Pride filled her eyes.
Paredes had first introduced her to Bobby a month or more ago. He had seen her a number of times since in
her dressing-room at the theatre where she was featured, or at crowded luncheons in her apartment. At such
moments she had managed to be exceptionally nice to him. Bobby, however, had answered merely to the
glamour of her fame, to the magnetic response her beauty always brought in places like this.
"Paredes," Graham muttered, "will have a powerful ally. You won't fail me, Bobby? You will go?"
Bobby scarcely heard. He hurried forward and welcomed the woman. She tapped his arm with her fan.
"Leetle Bobby!" she lisped. "I haven't seen very much of you lately. So when Carlos proposed--you see I don't
dance until late. Who is that behind you? Mr. Graham, is it not? He would, maybe, not remember me. I
danced at a dinner where you were one night, at Mr. Ward's. Even lawyers, I find, take enjoyment in my
dancing."