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Natalie Spencer was giving a dinner She was not an easy hostess Like

most women of futile lives she lacked a sense of proportion, and

the small and unimportant details of the service absorbed her Such

conversation as she threw at randoht and left, was trivial and

distracted

Yet the dinner was an uniiven with an eye

uest list, which was characteristic of

Natalie's mental processes It was also characteristic that when the

final course had been served without esture of withdrahich was a signal to the other

woood, the

service satisfactory She stood up, sliathered up the women with a smile

The movement found Doctor Haverford, at her left, unprepared and with

his coffee cup in his hand He put it down hastily and rose, and the

se of brown into the

cloth