The Secretary of Frivolous Affairs
Summary
In the gilded twilight between wars, Loulie—once cocooned in velvet prosperity—plummets into the lacunae of insolvency, her silks traded for a borrowed kimona. She accepts the post of social secretary to Mrs. Hazard, a matriarch whose fortune is rivaled only by her dread that her heirs might marry beneath the ozone of high society. Loulie’s brief: surgically excise the engagements of both scions—Miss Hazard affianced to a scribbling dreamer named Winthrop, her brother Hap enamored of an older divorcée, Natalie—without leaving emotional scar tissue. Loulie pirouettes through drawing-room intrigues, a one-woman fire brigade dousing every spark of scandal, until a rash of jewel disappearances stains her halo. Finger-pointing ricochets off marble corridors; suspicion pools at her feet. The true magpie, however, is Winthrop—though the audience is duped by a sleight-of-hand that frames him for crimes committed by the suave Duc de Trouville and his clandestine cadre of art thieves. A moonlit motorboat pursuit—engines snarling like caged panthers—ushers Winthrop offstage, leaving Loulie to confront a nocturnal burglary of heirloom paintings. She descends the grand staircase, kimona aflutter like a moth, interrupts the heist, and is abducted, trussed inside a salt-bitten manse. Hap, his ardor transferred from Natalie to Loulie, races to the rescue, absorbs a bullet graze, yet marshals enough vigor to scour the dunes where she has collapsed in a crumpled heap of cambric and courage. Back at the villa, Thomas—the unobtrusive footman—rips off his livery to reveal a badge; fisticuffs with the Duc crack chandeliers until the household cavalry returns. Mrs. Cutler, a guest whose smiles could slice crystal, is unmasked as the puppeteer who pinned the thefts on Winthrop. Reputations rehabilitated, Loulie jettisons her employment contract for Hap’s waiting arms, the final iris closing on a kiss that tastes of sea-salt and second chances.
Synopsis
Loulie, suddenly impoverished, becomes Mrs. Hazard's social secretary, her chief duties being to separate Mrs. Hazard's son and daughter from undesirable matrimonial choices they have made. Loulie pleases everyone, but several mysterious thefts cast suspicion on her. These thefts are finally traced to Winthrop, the young author engaged to Miss Hazard. He denies them, but is chased by the authorities in his motorboat. Meanwhile, Hap has transferred his affections from Natalie, who is older than he, to Loulie. Loulie hears a noise at night and goes downstairs in her kimona. She surprises some picture thieves at work, is overpowered and kidnapped. Hap goes to her rescue, but is injured. The chase becomes very exciting. Loulie is locked in a deserted house, but shoots at the guard through the door and escapes only to faint on the beach, where Hap discovers and rescues her. Back in the house Thomas, the new footman, discovers the Duc de Trouville and a gang of thieves at work cutting the paintings from their frames. The Duc and Thomas fight. The new footman, who turns out to be a detective, is saved by the party returning with Loulie. It is now made clear that Mrs. Cutler, a guest in the house, belongs to the gang and by a trick fastened guilt on Winthrop who is restored to favor. Loulie accents Hap.
