ant--none of this tray stuff--and I'll let you pay for it
all by yourself. You got a right to, after that contract. And we'll be
gay, and all the extra people that's eating in the restaurant'll think
we're a couple o' prominent film actors. How about it?" She danced at
his side.

"We'll have soup, too," he amended. "One of those thick ones that costs
about sixty cents. Sixty cents just for soup!" he repeated, putting a
hand to the contract that now stiffened one side of his coat.

"Well, just this once," she agreed. "It might be for the last time."

"Nothing like that," he assured her. "More you spend, more you
make--that's my motto."

They waited for a city-bound car, sitting again on the bench that was so
outspoken. "You furnish the girl, we furnish the home," it shouted.
He put his back against several of the bold words and felt of the
bracelet-watch in his pocket.

"It might be the last time for me," insisted the girl. "I feel as if I
might die most any time. My health's breaking down under the strain. I
feel kind of a fever coming on right this minute."

"Maybe you shouldn't go out."

"Yes, I should."

They boarded the car and reached the real restaurant, a cozy and
discreet resort up a flight of carpeted stairs. Side by side on a seat
that ran along the wall they sat at a table for two and the dinner
was ordered. "Ruin yourself if you want to," said the girl as her host
included celery and olives in the menu. "Go on and order prunes, too,
for all I care. I'm reckless. Maybe I'll never have another dinner, the
way this fever's coming on. Feel my hand."

Under the table she wormed her hand into his, and kept it there until
food came. "Do my eyes look very feverish?" she asked.

"Not so very," he assured her, covering an alarm he felt for the first
time. She did appear to be feverish, and the anxiety of her manner
deepened as the meal progressed. It developed quickly that she had but
scant appetite for the choice food now being served. She could only
taste bits here and there. Her plates were removed with their delicacies
almost intact. Between courses her hand would seek his, gripping it as
if in some nameless dread. He became worried about her state; his own
appetite suffered.

Once she said as her hot hand clung to his, "I know where you'll be
to-morrow night." Her voice grew mournful, despairing. "And I know
perfectly well it's no good asking you to stay away."

He let this pass. Could it be that t