THE MYSTERY OF A MEMORABLE DINNER PARTY.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 9779, 12 January 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MYSTERY OF A MEMORABLE DINNER PARTY.

U ' * ; :V I " The Lowdena gave a dionor recently at which ten guests were present. Little •'nfter Woccurred,with a groat deal o) gusto. I fancy Roach is net asked there . to dinner very frequently, nor anywhere dbo .for. that matter. His excessive 'curiosity,and h:s disposition to talk ovet aSaira that are. not' his own, makes people nervous about him, and render jhis conversation just a little tiresome. ' ! Now there was.nothing unusual about ; the fact that the Lowdeos gave a dinner, jM'ax does not' dance, and Mrs. Lowden jdislikes card's, and neither of them care jmnch for music, so they have comprotaised on the dinner, as a convenient (method of entertaining friends and of Repaying social obligations. They keep •Jan excellent coo!;, and Mrs. Lowden herjßdlf,' so her husband once told mo, [watches every detail ol the event. Max iis a good judge of wines and an agreeable italkor.- They have friendships among 'no end of clever people, and iliey are Ijudiciouß in their arrangement of their •guests, To be invited to the dinner at .the Lowdens is at once a distinction and .a piece of good fortune, and I [did not Iwonder at the enthusiasm of 'little

ißoach, ■ " I sat between Mrs, General Gumm fcfid Count von Haasse," said he, " and .We talked—" -'' Wiio else was there ?" I asked, look■lng about me, and planning the quickest method of escape, \ ■ He gave me the list, cheeking them oft .on his fingers (o insure a correct count, 'AsAe proceeded, I listened with more ; and. more interest, and when the tale Wrs ended, it suddenly dawned upon me - jtlißt this was an event of a mo3t unusual Bharaeter, and one that I must know ftnore about—but not from ltoach, j' " There goes my car," I exolaimed, -Pd was. presently put down four blocks put of my way. Miix Lowden and I are old friends, and bur fathers were business associates half a century ago. I was confident that if I J 'gave him a chance, he would explain the .mystery of this dinner, and I'telephoned .to a3k how soon he and Mrs. Lowden would hi! at home of an evening. I had handful of new opals to show them, ifot to-night, nor to-niorrrow night; but the next, and I " would b(i most welcome."

i In the meantime I met another of the guests of that extraordinary dinner, a Mi's. Hopuin, whom I know but slightly. I know her husband,-however, a subdued, crushed, much-married-looking individual, who 'occasionally wanders unhappily about the room?; of the club where I live. I was making a call, and there were a good ninny ceople there,flncl I was talking to somebody, or Irj-ing to talk, for the incessant twitter of a shrill voice a few feet away made conyeriation difficult.

"Yes; I met iiimrecenfly at a dinner at .Mrs. Lowden's," the voice saidit was the voice of Mrs. lioppin. An eloquently vacant, look-' came into the face of my companion, fjlibttasiiot listening to me, which ra well enough, for I was paying no : attention to what I said. "Jt was a charming dinner—a most delightful set of people one always meets at the Lowdcns, L'jould tell from the inflection that the person to whom she spoke was not so fortunate as to know the Lowdcns. " Let mo see; ;whowere there? lam sure you know them all." Then came that list again, ;nnd for a second time I felt the strange thrill that conies wrtli an unexplained mystery.

Mrs. Ho-ipin twittered on, her sharp notes cutting their way through the soft bum of tlio general conversation about us, Sho really had never had such a charming dinner as that. She must be scused for speaking of it, for it was like an event in one's life, don't you know.

: I assured my vis-a-vis that we agreei perfectly on the matters we had beei .discussing, and then went ofl to hum ifor my hat. [ was anxious to learn abou jtlio dinner, but not from Mrs. Hoppin.

Tiie Lowdens were in tlie library, when I called—a cosy little den, which 'was usually sacred to Max and his ■friends; but on this occasion Mrs, tow:den was there, seated g| Sui'dfsk, with ,n writing-pad before hePj '• You are just in time, H she said, signalling at ni3 willi a lead pencil," to help us determine who beside yourself .shall come' to dinner here next Wednesday." !i Besides myself," I repeated; " truly .1 am in lime, if my presence has accomplished that-much," "You are-just about always on the list, old man," said Lowden. " I should -think you would grow weary of our dinners." < \ I sta. ''\n to say sonv;thing about oases in l V / aiid desert i,i social life, yvhen Mrs. Lowden interrupted—"Gome; give me a name." . i

; " Put down little lioach," said I, ' Mrs. Lmvden pressed the pencil . against her lips. "Do you really like Ihiin—pretty well ?" she asked, doubtfully. " JJpsides," she continued, with feminine disconnectedness, •' lie dined ill ere only last week; so it would uot do. ' jou know,' 1 "Of course," said I: " let me see. iHow about Mrs, Hoppin ?" " Mrs. floppiu 1" cried the lady at ,tho desk, and her voice suddenly took ■on a.shrill-quality, quite foreign to it, Oil, no, not Mrs, Hoppin. AYe had her, • ,foo, last week." , I meditated for a moment in silence, j " General Gumm," 1 said, at length,, . ' Max Lowden started up and looked at ■ma Buspicioasly. His wife luuglied. "Isn't thai, funny, Max," she esclaimed; " Mi - . llobinson lias pitched * upon three out of the ten people that we had to dinner last Thursday.' 1 ; " i'ut down Count von ifaasse," said 3, seriously. ' Mrs, Lowden dropped her pencil and stared, Max rose from, his chair near •the lire-place and brought a decanter of scotch and a bottle of seltzer and a glass, and placed them.on the labourite at my elbow. v $ •' "The drinks are on \is," said he, i" Who told you about it P" "Oh, several," said I, indifferently. !" Where do you get this 8001011!"' Thero ps a faint cry from Mrs; Lowilen. ..- " Are people-talking-— 1 11 she asked. IMr. Max grabbed tlio poker, and began J'ammeriug a-lump of coal in the tireplace, r f'" What difference does it make," said 1; " people must havo. something to .talk about, and a peculiar a'lair like that '

i But it was not peculiar at all," ex[claimedLoirdra, astl then

incoherently; " that.was why it was so strange."- " .. . "i see," ?aid I, though I really did not see at all, but was,, in fatit, entirely mystihed. " Whose idea-was it, in the first place ?" ~ . "I will tell you'nil about jt." said Max, waving the poker, in a threatening' wdy/- "'Probably I was nioro to blame

"Max, you mustn't!cried Mrs . Lowdeii, witli great vehemence-; 'w, ought not to talk about it. Mr, Robinsoi e will excuse us, lam sure," !i "Of coarse," said I, with great dig c nity:" 1 did not suppose it was so bat as that." ; • >'•'•' Nfiiisenee. Marie," said Lowden. " ] Jim going, to make a dean breriat of tin t whole business to Ned; he may be abli ■, to help us out. But tell i}ie,'first of all do you tliijik any of iiiem mispijot 'i" . ' " Not oifo," eaid i, with splendid m L fideiiee.■ * • '' Thank heaven for that! " said Mrs, t Lowden. " You iuay tell him, Max." f " You are a bachelor, Med." said Low- , don," and you probably have very little idea of tjie many and complicated social that people who entertain even i as little as we: do mustnieet and 'solve. : flow, I used to tlihiJi, in the innocence , of- my pre-marital days, "that. the whole , sociuf scheme was based oil the desire of cerlaimpeoplo to make things pleasant for certain other people whom tlicy like and admire, But bless your heart, my boy, that has no more lo do " Oh, Max," interrupted his wife, " you are not telling this story the right way. Mr.: Robinson understands well enough that every social set has attached to it. inevitably, a class of people that aresomehoipot exactly what you might call—" Hlie hesitated for the word. " Desirable," I suggested., " She means the bores." said Max. " I menu," said Mrß, Lowden, with dignity, " those people that do not seem to mix well with others." " Exactly," 1 assented, " the disintegrators." "It is perfectly mysteiious," con: tinued Mrs, Lowden, "how many people of that sort manago to get strings on you. That is lvliat Max calls it. Some of them are distant relatives of your own, others are neal - relatives of your dearest friends. Sometimes they do things for you, before you can head them ofl, aiid place j,;?u tinder obligations that way apd sometimes just coldbloodedly niakeldeniands'that you have' uot the courfiße |o refuse." " fluid both you'iind Max are sympathetic by nature/' I added, " What [b .a radii to do f" said Low•den. ''There is tliat clidp, Hufqs.T, Peet, You know lpi, WtS All three- | went to school together, Of course, he is, from a social point of view, just about everything that a man ought npt to lie, when he came to my office a little while ago, and remarked almost pathetically lie so frequently heard his friends speak of my dinners, but had never been invited to one, although lie was an old frieml-a very old" friend-well 1 tumbled into it, and Marie was fuiions,"

r. But- that wiis no worse than the ease i. of .Mrs. Rankin," said his wife, "You wouldn't believe, would you, that a woman could have the immidence to actually demand—well, I simply can not ) toil it." 1 " I uiv'iorfilnnd," snid I; "the hold- . up business flourishes in every line ot \ life. But go on with the story,"' • "Every lime we hive made up a

' dinner -list lately," resumed Sirs. Low- ■ dun, "there lias been it sort of a—you might call it n discussion—, "EoH',"interjeeted , liw husband. ' . ''."7 -Between .Max and m.vselt about inviting some of these people, to-to-woi'k them off, you know," • " I understand," said I, '' Yon obiecled to iiis particular friends, and he objected to yours," . '•Yes, and we both hated to inflict them on people of the right sort. So ■Max finally suggested—"Only in fun, you-know, but Marie took it .in earnest.' 1 . " " Well, so did you finally. Max suggested that we make up a list for ono dinner to contain absolutely nothing hut bores —the very worst one 3 we knew," '• There were ten of them," said Max, " all stars of the first magnitude." " Ten, not including ourselves," commented Mrs. Low-den, with the instinctive arithmetic of a dinner giver,' " I would not think of including you, of course," said I. • . " There was that Mrs. Riekie, who tells you all about the various tilings her husband died of; and little■'pitch', you know hii'u, of course; and the lionpin's, he scarcely spoke abovii a whisper,whilst she just shrieked and-Max'B' dear old friend, Poet —" ''Cut that," growled low&n; "lie was paired ofl with Marie's particular fancy, Mrs. Eiinkin's. They talked religion with great vigour throughout the meal. The solemn Miss Pollock, who never says a word, sat next to Count.vita Ifaasse. Did you ever read any of his books ? " Horribly soggy," said I; " undigested German-English." " Well, he is worse than his books," " It is a shame to talk about people in such a way." said Mrs. Lowden, covering her face with her hands; 11 when one has entertained them, too, That is why I did not want Max to tell about this dinner,"

" And General Gumm and his wife," began Lowden, " Oh, I know the list well enough " said I, " But tell me, how did tile aliair pass atf ?" Mrs. Lowden gave a rapturous little laugh, and her husband's features relaxed into a grin. " That is thej strangest part of it," she paid. " Nothing ever took place in this house that was, a bigger success than that. We expect our.guests to have a pleasant time, or wo are disappointed, but we do not look to see them go into '

testacies of joy, and fairly, gurgle with happiness, as these people did; They ate enormously—" " And drank," interjected Max. " And that is one of the siM6t sjgns that people art; enjoying thems&lfrQs. liut the queerest thins of all wastlie way they took' to .oup jnother. We matched them up vritli sriie care—'.' " Marie did that," sliid Lor?den. "Tell him ypurplap. dear," '' It is perfectly simple," spid she, tores are divided into two oliissesthose who talk too much, or those who don t talk at nil. Little Iloaeh, who prattles incessantly, took opt Mrii, Gumm; who mis never kiiowri to say anything except 'yes' and 'i)o.' Mr. Hoppm sat next to Mrs. fiiokie afid lietened most attentively to nil h&r troubles, It was like tluit all around the t'jible. Max and J had nothing to do but to sit up and look pleasant,"

ffh.st a triumph!" said I. " What a splendid social achievement I To entertain clever people is- nothing—they entertain themselves and one anQthwvbut to accomplish such results with such material —it was magnificent. Would that I might have been there to behold it. Tell me, Mrs. Lowdun, why I was not invited ? "

:" Indeed, Mr, Eobinson," answered the lady, "..we discussed'asking you,-and atone time had ahout decided—•" - "You see," cut in her husband, hastily, " our first plan was to invite some very clever people—two or tlireo-tohelp US-entertain the others." ' "Yes," assented Mrs. Lowdeh, with an eagerness that seemed to cover a little confusion ; "-but we changed that, and left .you out-. Now won't you help make up the list for a little dinner next

I Said nothing more on the subject of iny invitation, but I' could not avoid giving the matter some quiet thought. ■ Max was riyLt. It would havo been belter not to liaYe told the etory,