too lazy to make carbon copies. I haven't even my first draft of the thing. And I wouldn't attempt to rewrite it for all my hopes of fame and fortune! I'm no Carlyle. I've simply got to get it back! And there's no use going to the police for a thing like that, as you ought to know. If it isn't diamonds or money, they'll do nothing."
"Tell me something about the novel."
"Why, I hadn't decided upon a name yet; but it was by way of being a social satire. I've been about a good deal, you know, in New York, and know the fastest part of the smart set, and not a few of the others. It was pretty frank, an exposé, really, as I told you. Of course, I have toned it down in some places and raised things to a higher power in others. It's a bit sensational; but I've taken good care to change episodes and details so that no one of the characters could be identified. I'm not altogether a cad. But it's all true to life; what might happen any day in New York, and seen from the inside, too."
"How many people know that you were writing it?"
"Oh, I've made no secret of it. Any one who wanted to could have found out."
"Very well. I'll be up this afternoon to look about. The Lady in Taupe called in the evening, I take it?"
"Yes, at about eight o'clock. I'm seldom in at that hour. I can't imagine how she should know I was at home. Funny thing, too, I have almost always met her in the forenoon, usually within a half-hour of the time I left my flat."
"Did you promise her a place in The Chameleon?"
"Why, I said I'd do what I could. She interested me, and might go well for my heavy woman, though
