The Secret Adversary (Tommy & Tuppence 1)

CHAPTER XXVII. A SUPPER PARTY AT THE _SAVOY_

THE supper party given by Mr. Julius Hersheimmer to a few friends on theevening of the 30th will long be remembered in catering circles. It tookplace in a private room, and Mr. Hersheimmer’s orders were brief andforcible. He gave carte blanche--and when a millionaire gives carteblanche he usually gets it!

Every delicacy out of season was duly provided. Waiters carried bottlesof ancient and royal vintage with loving care. The floral decorationsdefied the seasons, and fruits of the earth as far apart as May andNovember found themselves miraculously side by side. The list of guestswas small and select. The American Ambassador, Mr. Carter, who had takenthe liberty, he said, of bringing an old friend, Sir William Beresford,with him, Archdeacon Cowley, Dr. Hall, those two youthful adventurers,Miss Prudence Cowley and Mr. Thomas Beresford, and last, but not least,as guest of honour, Miss Jane Finn.

Julius had spared no pains to make Jane’s appearance a success. Amysterious knock had brought Tuppence to the door of the apartment shewas sharing with the American girl. It was Julius. In his hand he held acheque.

“Say, Tuppence,” he began, “will you do me a good turn? Take this, andget Jane regularly togged up for this evening. You’re all coming tosupper with me at the _Savoy_. See? Spare no expense. You get me?”

“Sure thing,” mimicked Tuppence. “We shall enjoy ourselves. It will be apleasure dressing Jane. She’s the loveliest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s so,” agreed Mr. Hersheimmer fervently.

His fervour brought a momentary twinkle to Tuppence’s eye.

“By the way, Julius,” she remarked demurely, “I--haven’t given you myanswer yet.”

“Answer?” said Julius. His face paled.

“You know--when you asked me to--marry you,” faltered Tuppence, hereyes downcast in the true manner of the early Victorian heroine, “andwouldn’t take no for an answer. I’ve thought it well over----”

“Yes?” said Julius. The perspiration stood on his forehead.

Tuppence relented suddenly.

“You great idiot!” she said. “What on earth induced you to do it? Icould see at the time you didn’t care a twopenny dip for me!”

“Not at all. I had--and still have--the highest sentiments of esteem andrespect--and admiration for you----”

“H’m!” said Tuppence. “Those are the kind of sentiments that very soongo to the wall when the other sentiment comes along! Don’t they, oldthing?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” said Julius stiffly, but a large andburning blush overspread his countenance.

“Shucks!” retorted Tuppence. She laughed, and closed the door, reopeningit to add with dignity: “Morally, I shall always consider I have beenjilted!”

“What was it?” asked Jane as Tuppence rejoined her.

“Julius.”

“What did he want?”

“Really, I think, he wanted to see you, but I wasn’t going to let him.Not until to-night, when you’re going to burst upon every one like KingSolomon in his glory! Come on! _We’re going to shop!_”

To most people the 29th, the much-heralded “Labour Day,” had passed muchas any other day. Speeches were made in the Park and Trafalgar Square.Straggling processions, singing the _Red Flag_, wandered through thestreets in a more or less aimless manner. Newspapers which had hinted ata general strike, and the inauguration of a reign of terror, were forcedto hide their diminished heads. The bolder and more astute amongthem sought to prove that peace had been effected by following theircounsels. In the Sunday papers a brief notice of the sudden death of SirJames Peel Edgerton, the famous K.C., had appeared. Monday’s paperdealt appreciatively with the dead man’s career. The exact manner of hissudden death was never made public.

Tommy had been right in his forecast of the situation. It had been aone-man show. Deprived of their chief, the organization fell to pieces.Kramenin had made a precipitate return to Russia, leaving England earlyon Sunday morning. The gang had fled from Astley Priors in a panic,leaving behind, in their haste, various damaging documents whichcompromised them hopelessly. With these proofs of conspiracy in theirhands, aided further by a small brown diary taken from the pocket of thedead man which had contained a full and damning résumé of the wholeplot, the Government had called an eleventh-hour conference. The Labourleaders were forced to recognize that they had been used as a cat’spaw. Certain concessions were made by the Government, and were eagerlyaccepted. It was to be Peace, not War!

But the Cabinet knew by how narrow a margin they had escaped utterdisaster. And burnt in on Mr. Carter’s brain was the strange scene whichhad taken place in the house in Soho the night before.

He had entered the squalid room to find that great man, the friend ofa lifetime, dead--betrayed out of his own mouth. From the dead man’spocket-book he had retrieved the ill-omened draft treaty, and thenand there, in the presence of the other three, it had been reduced toashes.... England was saved!

And now, on the evening of the 30th, in a private room at the _Savoy_,Mr. Julius P. Hersheimmer was receiving his guests.

Mr. Carter was the first to arrive. With him was a choleric-looking oldgentleman, at sight of whom Tommy flushed up to the roots of his hair.He came forward.

“Ha!” said the old gentleman, surveying him apoplectically. “So you’remy nephew, are you? Not much to look at--but you’ve done good work, itseems. Your mother must have brought you up well after all. Shall welet bygones be bygones, eh? You’re my heir, you know; and in future Ipropose to make you an allowance--and you can look upon Chalmers Park asyour home.”

“Thank you, sir, it’s awfully decent of you.”

“Where’s this young lady I’ve been hearing such a lot about?”

Tommy introduced Tuppence.

“Ha!” said Sir William, eyeing her. “Girls aren’t what they used to bein my young days.”

“Yes, they are,” said Tuppence. “Their clothes are different, perhaps,but they themselves are just the same.”

“Well, perhaps you’re right. Minxes then--minxes now!”

“That’s it,” said Tuppence. “I’m a frightful minx myself.”

“I believe you,” said the old gentleman, chuckling, and pinched her earin high good-humour. Most young women were terrified of the “old bear,” as they termed him. Tuppence’s pertness delighted the old misogynist.

Then came the timid archdeacon, a little bewildered by the company inwhich he found himself, glad that his daughter was considered to havedistinguished herself, but unable to help glancing at her from timeto time with nervous apprehension. But Tuppence behaved admirably. Sheforbore to cross her legs, set a guard upon her tongue, and steadfastlyrefused to smoke.

Dr. Hall came next, and he was followed by the American Ambassador.

“We might as well sit down,” said Julius, when he had introduced all hisguests to each other. “Tuppence, will you----”

He indicated the place of honour with a wave of his hand.

But Tuppence shook her head.

“No--that’s Jane’s place! When one thinks of how she’s held out allthese years, she ought to be made the queen of the feast to-night.”

Julius flung her a grateful glance, and Jane came forward shyly to theallotted seat. Beautiful as she had seemed before, it was as nothing tothe loveliness that now went fully adorned. Tuppence had performed herpart faithfully. The model gown supplied by a famous dressmaker had beenentitled “A tiger lily.” It was all golds and reds and browns, and outof it rose the pure column of the girl’s white throat, and the bronzemasses of hair that crowned her lovely head. There was admiration inevery eye, as she took her seat.

Soon the supper party was in full swing, and with one accord Tommy wascalled upon for a full and complete explanation.

“You’ve been too darned close about the whole business,” Julius accusedhim. “You let on to me that you were off to the Argentine--though Iguess you had your reasons for that. The idea of both you

and Tuppencecasting me for the part of Mr. Brown just tickles me to death!”

“The idea was not original to them,” said Mr. Carter gravely. “It wassuggested, and the poison very carefully instilled, by a past-master inthe art. The paragraph in the New York paper suggested the plan to him,and by means of it he wove a web that nearly enmeshed you fatally.”