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SWEETER THAN SWEET COMPANY
CLUB ELYSIA
NEW YORK CITY

MY DEAR FRIENDS CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH INCLUDE THE PREPARATION OF A SPLENDID NEW ENTERTAINMENT FOR NEXT SEASON MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO BE PRESENT AT ELYSIA TONIGHT STOP I HAVE ARRANGED A FULL SEASONS TOUR FOR SWEETER THAN SWEET STOP TO DO SO REQUIRED THAT THE SHOW CLOSE TONIGHT STOP I KNOW YOU WOULD RATHER WORK TOGETHER FOR ANOTHER HAPPY YEAR I AM SURE YOU APPRECIATE AND UNDERSTAND MY ACTION STOP MY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR THE SUCCESS YOU HAVE GIVEN ME AND MY SALUTATIONS TO THE GREATEST TROUPE OF TROUPERS ON THE AMERICAN STAGE.

HOWARD VEE

Cheers greeted the reading of this wire by Harry Berg. Willis P. Flint proposed a toast to Howard. Myra Malloy drank to Howard in gin and ginger ale, which she preferred to sparkling Burgundy. "Who," she asked, rolling her blue eyes mischievously, "will now propose a toast to Ken Gracey?"

At midnight, the liner King George V sailed from New York. Howard's name was on the passenger list. Ken was, however, the only person who was at the dock to wish him God-speed.

After the gangplank had been raised, Ken returned to the Mercedes, now his own property. He drove swiftly up the west side of Manhattan, through Riverside Drive to the exclusive suburb of Riverdale, a quiet old neighborhood of residences lying within the city limits of New York.