That part was easy. I
have written a great deal for the comic papers, and acrobatic
nonsense of that sort comes almost without an effort on my part.
With equal ease I got Osborne to Newport--how, I do not recollect.
It is just possible that I took him through from New York without a
train, by the mere say-so of my pen. At any rate, I got him there,
and I fully intended to have him meet Miss Andrews at a dance at the
Ocean House the day after his arrival. I even progressed so far as
to get up the dance. I described the room, the decorations, and the
band. I had Osborne dressed and waiting, with Bonetti also dressed
and waiting on the other side of the room, Scylla and Charybdis all
over again, but by no possibility could I force Miss Andrews to
appear. Why it was, I do not pretend to be able to say--she may have
known that Bonetti was there, she may have realized that I was trying
to force Osborne upon her; but whatever it was that enabled her to do
so, she resisted me successfully--or my pen did; for that situation
upon which I had based the opening scene of my story of compulsion I
found beyond my ability to depict; and as Harley had done before me,
so was I now forced to do--to change my plan.
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