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 Found me so easy to flimflam—my type appeals tohim. He pleaded with me to come.”

“But you? You don’t like him? Yet you accept. Ah, yes—I was forgetting—the little southern girl”

“My reasons,” I said hotly, “happen to be my own affair.”

“Naturally.” His tone was conciliatory. “Come and have a drink. No? I am going to the party myself.”

I had been wondering—his fame as a philanderer was international. Was this affair with Carlotta Drew anything more than a passing flurry to relieve the tedium of another trip across? Here was the answer. Evidently it was.

“Fearful bore,” he went on. “But Carlotta insisted. I’d do anything for Carlotta Drew. Wonderful woman!”

“Think so?” said I.

“Don’t you?” he asked.

“In the presence of an expert,” said I, “I would hesitate to express an opinion.” Rh