Holmes was truly astonished. 'But they'll find out in a jiffy what goes on here.'
'I don't intend to let them find out,' said Minna. 'I've practically cleared out the Club. Gave most of the girls vacations and kept six here to serve as dining-room hostesses. I advised everyone, the servants included, of my problem. Now I felt it was necessary to tell you also. There must be no loopholes.'
'You can depend on my silence, Minna. You know that.'
'For the next two weeks, I am Minna Lester and my sister is Aida Lester – our maiden names.'
'Of course.' Holmes squirmed on the sofa. 'What am I to do in the meantime?'
'You are not to set foot in the Everleigh Club until you are summoned. You will still earn your fee by attending my girls who have been put on vacation. I'll give you a list of hotels where they are hiding out. You will continue to examine them. I want to be assured they are not working on the side and contaminating themselves.'
Holmes was pleased. 'Certainly fair enough.'
Minna rose. 'Come along. We'll drink to it in my study.'
The next morning at eleven-thirty, the four Lesters, in Minna's new Ford, drove up North Shore Drive along the quiet waters of Lake Michigan, swung on to Lake Park Avenue, and went through open metal gates. The semicircular driveway ahead of them led to the entrance of the brick mansion that was the home of Harold T. Armbruster.
They had all spent the morning dressing for the critical occasion.
As usual, Minna was the most flamboyantly dressed. She was wearing a diamond dog collar, a stomacher studded with emeralds, a long gown of rich blue silk, with four diamond bracelets rattling on one wrist. Aida was similarly attired, but wore only a pearl necklace that had belonged to their mother. Cathleen, as befitted her age and virginal state, was the most simply dressed, in a pleated white linen blouse and brown skirt. Bruce was neatly attired in a straw hat, celluloid collar, new twenty-five-cent black necktie, and expensive seventy-five-cent checked shirt he had purchased at Mandel Brothers.
They had been squeezed together in the car, since room had to be made for Edmund to chauffeur them. Descending from the Ford, Minna led the way up the marble steps.
Admitted by a butler into the foyer, the guests were received in the garish living-room by Harold T. Armbruster himself. Armbruster was flanked by his top-heavy, dumpy wife, Pearl, and his two offspring. Judith Armbruster looked somewhat like Abe Lincoln, Minna decided – not bad for Lincoln himself, but not as good for an eligible girl in her twenties. Alan, on the other hand, while above medium height and seemingly strong enough, had a faint, ethereal quality, somewhat like Keats. Minna liked him at once.
Cathleen was greeted with handshakes by Armbruster and his wife. Alan greeted her more warmly with a chaste peck on one cheek. Then Cathleen introduced her aunts, Minna and Aida Lester, with whom she and Bruce were staying while in Chicago.
'Well, well,' boomed Armbruster, 'this is a happy group.' Then addressing himself to Minna, he said, 'Cathleen tells us you and your sister are prominent in social circles here. I can't recall ever having met you.'
'We don't circulate much,' replied Minna. 'We devote ourselves to artistic pursuits and charities. It might be accurate to say we are recluses, two widows alone.'
'A pity,' said Armbruster. 'You're both too attractive to remove yourselves from society. To make you feel more at home, perhaps you'd like to have a look about?'
Armbruster plodded ahead of them as he led his party through the main downstairs rooms. There was a ballroom which could be converted into a theatre. There were several parlours. They visited the music room, which featured a rosewood piano – quite grand, Minna thought, but nowhere comparable to her own gold piano at the Club. At last they arrived in the large library, done up with imported ebony reading tables inlaid with gold. There were few books in the library. The walls were mostly covered by Gobelin tapestries, and, incongruously, Minna thought, a huge framed painting of a scene from Armbruster's own stockyards.
Insisting that they all relax on the French Empire sofas in the library, Armbruster rang a bell. A maid and butler appeared immediately, one to serve pate de foie gras, the other to pour Veuve Clicquot.
Sipping his drink, Armbruster said, 'I thought we might have a little get-acquainted talk before we go in to lunch.'
'Where should we begin?' Minna said pertly.
'With your niece's wedding to our son Alan, I should think,' Armbruster answered. 'The ballroom you just saw is where the'wedding will take place. I've already secured the services of a Lutheran minister, if that is suitable to Cathleen.'
'I'm a Baptist,' Cathleen said.
'No matter,' said Armbruster decisively. 'We all pray to the same God, don't we?'
'I guess so,' said Cathleen weakly.
'We'll be entertaining 200 guests, the most important people in Chicago. I assume you have your wedding gown, Cathleen?'
Minna took over. 'Cathleen has a lovely white lace and satin gown that Aida and I have picked out for her at Marshall Field's. It needs only to be fitted.'
'Capital!' Armbruster exclaimed. 'The wedding will be formal, of course, because it will be a special occasion beyond the ceremony itself. Prince Henry of Prussia will be in Chicago on that date, and I'm making every effort to have him attend the wedding as an honoured guest.'
'Has he accepted?' Minna wondered.
'I believe Mayor Harrison has just presented the prince's Chicago schedule to his aides in Washington. I should have confirmation before the prince and his party arrive here by train from New York. I have little doubt that the prince will be delighted to be the honoured guest at the banquet in our home.'
'That would be a feather in your cap,' said Aida, speaking up.
'More than that, far more than that,' agreed Armbruster, rubbing his dry hands together. 'I'll tell you something else
that would be a feather in my cap, indeed, in all our caps.' He turned to address Bruce directly. 'Bruce, my daughter Judith has urged me to bring you into my firm once you're part of the family.'
Bruce blinked at him, taken off guard. 'You… you're very generous, Mr Armbruster,' he stuttered. 'I… I'm not sure what you mean – you mean once my sister marries your son.'
Armbruster laughed. 'More than that, far more,' Armbruster told him. 'I could see, down in Kentucky, that Judith was quite taken by you. Hardly a day has passed since our return to Chicago in which she hasn't mentioned your name.'
Judith blushed, and giggled. 'Oh, Father…'
Armbruster ignored her, continuing to address Bruce. 'I also had an eye on you, Bruce, when you were with Judith, and I observed you were quite attentive to her.'
'He would be,' Minna hastily intervened. 'He's a Southern gentleman.'
'Well, I'm sure you won't have any difficulty making up your own mind, Bruce. For myself, I'd like Prince Henry to enjoy a rare experience, a beautiful double wedding. That accomplished, I feel confident I could take you into the firm. I could make you quite a rich person, young man.'
'In your meat-packing company?' Bruce managed to say.
'As my vice-president.'
'You're most generous, sir,' said Bruce. 'I have only one problem with that.'
'What would that be?' Armbruster wanted to know.
'I'm considering becoming a vegetarian.'
Armbruster was puzzled. 'Vegetarian? I'm not sure…'
'It means abstaining from all animal food,' Minna interjected.
Bruce pressed forward. 'Last night I found Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in Aunt Minna's library. I read it.' Bruce began to recite from the expose of the meat-packing industry. ' "For once started on that journey, the hog never came back;