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Her house; when she reached it, seemed quiet, seemed empty. Susanna crossed the porch, wondering, and encountered the maid.

“Emma! Nobody come?”

“Sure you had the wrong day of it,” said Emma, beaming. “Mrs. Harrington fomed about an hour ago, and she says ’tis NEXT Saturday thin!”

“What do you mean?” said Susanna, sharply.

“‘Tis not to-day they’re comin’, Mrs. Fairfax–“

“Nonsense!” Susanna said under her breath. She flew to her desk and snatched up the scribbled card of engagements. “Why, it’s no such thing!” she said indignantly. “Of course it’s to-day! October sixteenth, as plain as print.” And with her eyes still on the card she reached for her desk telephone.

“Ethel,” said Susanna, a moment later. “Listen, Ethel, this is Susanna. Ethel, what made you say the club luncheon wasn’t to-day? This is my day to have the girls…. Certainly…. Why, I don’t care what she said, I have it written down!… Why, I think that’s very funny…. I have it written…. No, you can laugh all you want to, but I know I’m right…. No, that’s nothing. Jim will eat it all up to-morrow; he says he never gets enough to eat on Sundays…. But I can’t understand, and I don’t believe YET that I… Yes, it’s written right here; I’ve got my eyes on it now! It’s the most extraordinary….”

A little vexed at Mrs. Harrington’s unbounded amusement, Susanna terminated the conversation as soon as was decently possible, and went kitchenward. In her anxiety not to miss her train back to the city, she refused Teresa’s offer of dainty sandwiches, pastries, and tea, and merely stopped long enough to brush up her hair and to ascertain by carefully enumerating them out loud that she had her purse, her gloves, the orphanage plans, and the new time-table.

“This will seem very funny,” said poor Susanna, gallantly to herself, as she took her seat in the train and tried to ignore a really sharp headache, “when once I see them! If I can only get hold of Jim, and if the afternoon goes smoothly, I shan’t mind anything!”

Only ten minutes late for her luncheon engagement, Susanna entered the cool depths of the restaurant and, piloted by an impressed head waiter, looked confidently for her own party. It was very pleasant here, and the trays of salads and iced things that were borne continually past her were very inviting.

But still there was no Mrs. Thayer and no Jim. Susanna waited a few nervous minutes, sat down, got up again, and finally, at two o’clock, went out into the blazing, unfriendly streets, and walked the five short squares that lay between the restaurant and her husband’s office. A hot, dusty wind blew steadily against her; the streets were full of happy girls and men with suit-cases, bound for the country and a day or two of fresh air and idleness. Miss Perry was putting the cover on her typewriter as Susanna entered the office, her own suit-case waiting in a corner. She looked astonished as Susanna came in.

“My goodness, Mrs. Fairfax!” she ejaculated. “We’ve been trying and trying to get you by telephone! Mr. Fairfax was so anxious to get hold of those orphanage plans. Mr. Thayer wanted–“

“I’ve been following him about all day,” said Susanna, with an undignified, but uncontrollable gulp. She sat down limply. “WHAT happened to the luncheon plan?” she asked forlornly. “Where is Mr. Fairfax?”

Miss Perry, perhaps softened by the sight of Susanna’s filling eyes and tired face, became very sympathetic. “Isn’t it TOO bad–I know you have! But you see Mrs. Thayer couldn’t see her friend in the hospital this morning, so she came right down here and got here not ten minutes after you left. She said she couldn’t wait for you, as she had to be back at the hospital at two, so she would do a little shopping herself and let the rest wait.”

“Well,” said Susanna, after a pause in which her very soul rebelled, “it can’t be helped, I suppose! Did Mr. Fairfax go out with her?”