fraid to say
so outright.

"I live at 45A South Washington Square," he said curtly. "You'll find
me there any time you want me."

CHAPTER VII

PLATONIC FRIENDSHIP

Charley Straiker came in to dinner that night in a highly effervescent
state. This was not at all unusual.

"Listen, Ev!" he cried. "I've seen her! Oh, a peach! a little queen!
Her name is Corinna Playfair. Isn't that mellifluous? Corinna
Playfair! Corinna Playfair! Like honey on the tongue! Listen, when I
came in a while ago I heard a woman's voice talking to Carmen in her
room on the ground floor. So I went back, making out I wanted to see
Carmen. And there she was! Bowled me over completely. Red hair, you
old misogynist! Piles and piles of it like autumn foliage. It's the
colour of a horse chestnut fresh out of the bur--and her skin's like
the inside of the bur--you know--creamy! Oh, ye gods!

"Well, she was telling old Carmen this and that; her blinds wouldn't
work, and the gas-jet in the dressing-room was out of order, and your
Uncle Dudley sees his chance and speaks up. 'I'll fix the gas-jet and
the blinds,' says I. There was nothing free and easy about her,
though. Made her eyebrows go up like two little crescent moons.
Looked at me as much as to say: 'What is this that the cat has brought
in?' 'Oh, thank you very much,' says she in a voice as friendly as a
marble headstone. 'I couldn't think of troubling you. Miss Sisson
will attend to it.'

"But of course old Carmen wasn't going to miss the chance of getting
her odd jobs done for nothing. She took my part. 'Mr. Straiker, Miss
Playfair,' says she, grinning like the cat who's turned over the
goldfish bowl. 'He will fix you up, I'm sure. I wouldn't be able to
get a man in before next week.'

"Well, to make a long story short, I fixed the blinds so's they'd roll
up, and cleaned out the gas burners. She didn't unbend any.
Discouraged all my efforts to make conversation. Thanked me all over
the place, and gave me to understand that I needn't build on it, you
know. But I swear I'll make her thaw out. I've thought of a scheme.
I tried all her burners--to gain time, you understand--and the one she
mostly uses whistles like a peanut stand. So I'm going out to get her
a swell gas mantle to-night, and say Carmen sent it, see? Trust l'il
Charley to find a way!"

Evan, of course, had his own ideas as to entertaining Miss Playfair
this evening. "How about the life