“I know one extraordinary instance,” said Peters, who up to the present, secure in his climax, had waited with a professional smile until the big guns had been silenced.  “In fact, the most extraordinary instance of this sort I have ever heard.”

“Peters, you little rascal,” said Quinny with a sidelong glance, “I perceive you have quietly been letting us dress the stage for you.”

“It is not a story that will please every one,” said Peters, to whet their appetite.

“Why not?”

“Because you will want to know what no one can ever know.”

“It has no conclusion then?”

“Yes and no.  As far as it concerns a woman, quite the most remarkable woman I have ever met, the story is complete.  As for the rest, it is what it is, because it is one example where literature can do nothing better than record.”

“Do I know the woman?” asked De Gollyer, who flattered himself on passing through every class of society.

“Possibly, but no more than any one else.”

“An actress?”

“What she has been in the past I don’t know—­a promoter would better describe her.  Undoubtedly she has been behind the scenes in many an untold intrigue of the business world.  A very feminine woman, and yet, as you shall see, with an unusual instantaneous masculine power of decision.”

“Peters,” said Quinny, waving a warning finger, “you are destroying your story.  Your preface will bring an anticlimax.”

“You shall judge,” said Peters, who waited until his audience was in strained attention before opening his story.  “The names are, of course, disguises.”

Mrs. Rita Kildair inhabited a charming bachelor-girl studio, very elegant, of the duplex pattern, in one of the buildings just off Central Park West.  She knew pretty nearly every one in that indescribable society in New York that is drawn from all levels, and that imposes but one condition for membership—­to be amusing.  She knew every one and no one knew her.  No one knew beyond the vaguest rumors her history or her means.  No one had ever heard of a Mr. Kildair.  There was always about her a certain defensive reserve the moment the limits of acquaintanceship had been reached.  She had a certain amount of money, she knew a certain number of men in Wall Street affairs and her studio was furnished with taste and even distinction.  She was of any age.  She might have suffered everything or nothing at all.  In this mingled society her invitations were eagerly sought, her dinners were spontaneous, and the discussions, though gay and usually daring, were invariably under the control of wit and good taste.

On the Sunday night of this adventure she had, according to her invariable custom, sent away her Japanese butler and invited to an informal chafing-dish supper seven of her more congenial friends, all of whom, as much as could be said of any one, were habitues of the studio.

At seven o’clock, having finished dressing, she put in order her bedroom, which formed a sort of free passage between the studio and a small dining room to the kitchen beyond.  Then, going into the studio, she lit a wax taper and was in the act of touching off the brass candlesticks that lighted the room when three knocks sounded on the door and a Mr. Flanders, a broker, compact, nervously alive, well groomed, entered with the informality of assured acquaintance.