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"Oh, this is exactly the sort of thing you wanted to hear. Isabel," Bunny said enthusiastically. "Life in Illusion, the Palm Beach Story," she wrote in the air.

"Really," Thelma said dryly. She fixed her suspicious eves on me again. "I have heard about people corning around here pretending to be one thing or another when in truth they were spies for some family member who was trying to determine what assets she or he might have been cheated out of through some dishonest settlement."

"She's hardly that." Bunny said, quickly coming to my defense.

"Maybe," Thelma said. nodding. "Affluent people have to be more skeptical, more cautious by necessity. Remember what Willie Sutton replied when he was asked why he robbed banks."

"What did he say?" Bunny asked her.

-He said because that was where the money was. It's the same far us. They came here because this is where the money is, Bunny. Really, you and my sister are two sides of the same coin."

"I hope it's a rare coin." Bunny said, laughing.

"Unfortunately, here it is not." Thelma shifted her eves at me again.

"I'm just a student, Mrs, Carriage," I told her. "I have no other agenda."

She stared sternly at me, her eves unrelenting. The silence was heavy.

"I know what," Bunny declared. "I'm going to have a party."

"What? When?" Brenda asked quickly.

"Saturday night. There-- it's decided. and Isabel can meet a number of people at once instead of pecking away."

"Maybe a party isn't a place where people really say and think what they believe." I offered gently. Bunny seemed so excited by her own idea. and I hated to throw any cold water on it.

"Perhaps in the rest of America that's so: however, it's certainly not true here," Thelma said. "A few glasses of shampoo, and they'll let down more than their hair."

"I love parties!" Brenda declared. beaming.

To you, every day is one big party," Thelma said.

"Well, it is for us, isn't it?" she shot back. The truth of the statement was too hard to deny, even for Thelma, who just pressed her lips together to farm that slash of purple across her face.

"Perfect, then." Bunny said, clapping her hands together. "Now, let's work up a guest list. We'll keep it small, say one hundred or one hundred twenty-five people.-

"That's small?" I asked.

Even Thelma laughed. "This is the party capital of the world." she said. She glanced at Bunny. "I'm not sure you have enough time to do it right."

"We will. We Bunny insisted.

"One of the hardest things to do here is make an impression," Thelma explained. 'What might seem like an extravaganza to you and your friends back in Spring City is ho-hum here."

"Well, this one won't be. We'll have a tent, of course, and set everything up around the pool. We'll get that company to put a dance floor over it, the way the Cooks did at their affair. remember? I want all the chairs decorated with fresh flowers."

"And lights." Brenda said. "You should string them up everywhere."

"Right. I will. We'll set up four bars. and I'll get Maxim to cater the food. I'll go right there in the morning and plan the menu. Thelma, you and Brenda should come along with me."

"I'll see," Thelma said.

"Have them make things you can't get in any restaurant around here," Brenda said. "I love when people do that."

Bunny nodded. "And for music... we'll get that twenty-piece orchestra the Grafters had at their affair."

"You can't book an orchestra on such short notice," Thelma said.