"She is an old cynic. If she had any snobbery in her she'd be here
to-night, rubbing elbows with the women who never knew of her existence
twenty years ago, although their husbands did. It has satisfied her
ironic French soul to sit in the court of the Palace Hotel day after day
and defy San Francisco to recognize Marie Garnett in the obese Madame
Delano, whose daughter is one of the great ladies of the city to whose
underworld she once belonged, and from whose filthy profits she derives
her income. Good God!"
He sat forward and clutched his head, but Spaulding, who had drawn out
his watch, tapped him on the shoulder.
"Come on," he said. "Time's gettin' short. The stunt is to be pulled off
just before supper."