"I remember," Graham said. "It is very pleasant we are to dine together." He continued tactlessly: "But, as I've
explained to Mr. Paredes, we must hurry. Bobby and I have an early engagement."
Her head went up.
"An early engagement! I do not often dine in public."
"An unavoidable thing," Graham explained. "Bobby will tell you."
Bobby nodded.
"It's a nuisance, particularly when you're so condescending, Maria."
She shrugged her shoulders. With Bobby she entered the dining-room at the heels of Paredes and Graham.
Paredes had foreseen everything. There were flowers on the table. The dinner had been ordered. Immediately
the waiter brought cocktails. Graham glanced at Bobby warningly. He wouldn't, as an example Bobby
appreciated, touch his own. Maria held hers up to the light.
"Pretty yellow things! I never drink them."
She smiled dreamily at Bobby.
"But see! I shall place this to my lips in order that you may make pretty speeches, and maybe tell me it is the
most divine aperitif you have ever drunk."
She passed the glass to him, and Bobby, avoiding Graham's eyes, wondering why she was so gracious,
emptied it. And afterward frequently she reminded him of his wine by going through the same elaborate
formula. Probably because of that, as much as anything else, constraint grasped the little company tighter.
Graham couldn't hide his anxiety. Paredes mocked it with sneering phrases which he turned most carefully.
Before the meal was half finished Graham glanced at his watch.
"We've just time for the eight-thirty," he whispered to Bobby, "if we pick up a taxi."
Maria had heard. She pouted.
"There is no engagement," she lisped, "as sacred as a dinner, no entanglement except marriage that cannot be
easily broken. Perhaps I have displeased you, Mr. Graham. Perhaps you fancy I excite unpleasant comment. It
is unjust. I assure you my reputation is above reproach"--her dark eyes twinkled--"certainly in New York."
"It isn't that," Graham answered. "We must go. It's not to be evaded."
She turned tempestuously.
"Am I to be humiliated so? Carlos! Why did you bring me? Is all the world to see my companions leave in the
midst of a dinner as if I were plague-touched? Is Bobby not capable of choosing his own company?"
"You are thoroughly justified, Maria," Paredes said in his expressionless tones. "Bobby, however, has said
very little about this engagement. I did not know, Mr. Graham, that you were the arbiter of Bobby's actions. In
a way I must resent your implication that he is no longer capable of caring for himself."
Graham accepted the challenge. He leaned across the table, speaking directly to Bobby, ignoring the others