“I’m afraid Paredes has planned a thorough evening,” he said, “for which he’ll want you to pay.  Don’t be angry, Bobby.  The situation is serious enough to excuse facts.  You must go to the Cedars to-night.  Do you understand?  You must go, in spite of Paredes, in spite of everything.”

“Peace until train time,” Bobby demanded.

He caught his breath.

“There they are.  Carlos has kept his word.  See her, Hartley.  She’s glorious.”

A young woman accompanied the Panamanian as he came back through the hall.  She appeared more foreign than her guide—­the Spanish of Spain rather than of South America.  Her clothing was as unusual and striking as her beauty, yet one felt there was more than either to attract all the glances in this room, to set people whispering as she passed.  Clearly she knew her notoriety was no little thing.  Pride filled her eyes.

Paredes had first introduced her to Bobby a month or more ago.  He had seen her a number of times since in her dressing-room at the theatre where she was featured, or at crowded luncheons in her apartment.  At such moments she had managed to be exceptionally nice to him.  Bobby, however, had answered merely to the glamour of her fame, to the magnetic response her beauty always brought in places like this.

“Paredes,” Graham muttered, “will have a powerful ally.  You won’t fail me, Bobby?  You will go?”

Bobby scarcely heard.  He hurried forward and welcomed the woman.  She tapped his arm with her fan.

“Leetle Bobby!” she lisped.  “I haven’t seen very much of you lately.  So when Carlos proposed—­you see I don’t dance until late.  Who is that behind you?  Mr. Graham, is it not?  He would, maybe, not remember me.  I danced at a dinner where you were one night, at Mr. Ward’s.  Even lawyers, I find, take enjoyment in my dancing.”

“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.”