se round and round the telephone.

"Hello, hello! Is Mrs. Needham there?... Hello!... Oh, hel-_lo_, Laura
dear. This is Ruth. I.... Fine. I feel fine. But chillery. Listen,
Laura; I've been taking a tramp along the Palisades. Am I invited to
dinner with a swain?... What?... Oh yes, I am; certainly I'm invited
to dinner.... Well, my dear, go in town by all means, with my
blessing; but that sha'n't prevent you from having the opportunity to
enjoy being hospitable.... I don't know. What ferry do you catch?...
The 7.20?... N-no, I don't think we can get there till after that, so
you can go right ahead and have the Biddy get ready for us.... All
right; that _is_ good of you, dear, to force the invitation on me."
She flushed as her eyes met Carl's. She continued: "But seriously,
will it be too much of a tax on the Biddy if we do come? We're drefful
cold, and it's a long crool way to town.... Thank you, dear. It shall
be returned unto you--after not too many days.... What?... Who?... Oh,
a man.... Why, yes, it might be, but I'd be twice as likely to go
tramping with Olive as with Phil.... No, it isn't.... Oh, as usual.
He's getting to be quite a dancing-man.... Well, if you must know--oh,
I can't give you his name. He's----" She glanced at Carl appraisingly,
"----he's about five feet tall, and he has a long French shovel beard
and a lovely red nose, and he's listening to me describe him!"

Carl made the kitten chase the mouse furiously.

"Perhaps I'll tell you about him some time.... Good-by, Laura dear."

She turned to Carl, rubbing her cold ear where the telephone-receiver
had pressed against it, and caroled: "Her husband is held late at the
office, and Laura is going to meet him in town, and they're going to
the theater. So we'll have the house all to ourselves. Exciting!" She
swung round to telephone home that she would not be there for dinner.

As they left the shop, went over a couple of blocks for the
Winklehurst trolley, and boarded it, Carl did some swift thinking. He
was not above flirting or, if the opportunity offered, carrying the
flirtation to the most delicious, exciting, uncertain lengths he
could. Here, with "dinner in their own house," with a girl interesting
yet unknown, there was a feeling of sudden intimacy which might mean
anything. Only--when their joined eyes had pledged mischief while she
telephoned, she had been so quiet, so frank, so evidently free from a
shamefaced erotic curiosity, that now he