'm with you.
Ah, come along; what's the odds?"

"_No_--_no_--NO," she answered decisively. "What kind of a girl do you
think I am, anyway?"

"Well, I tell you what," answered Vandover, "just come down _by_ the
place, and if you don't like the looks of it you needn't go in. I want
to get some cigarettes, anyhow. You can walk down with me till I do
_that_."

"I'll walk down with you," replied Ida, "but I shan't go in."

They drew near to the Imperial. The street about was deserted, even the
usual hacks that had their stand there were gone.

"You see," explained Vandover as they passed slowly in front of the
doors, "this is all quiet enough. If you pulled down your veil no one
would know the difference, and here's the ladies' entrance, you see,
right at the side."

"All right, come along, let's go in," exclaimed Ida suddenly, and before
he knew it they had swung open the little door of the ladies' entrance
with its frosted pane of glass and had stepped inside.

It was between nine and ten o'clock, and the Imperial was quiet as yet;
a few men were drinking in the barroom outside, and Toby, the red-eyed
waiter, was talking in low tones to a girl under one of the electric
lights.

Vandover and Ida went into one of the larger rooms in the rear passage
and shut the door. Ida pushed her bolero jacket from her shoulders,
saying, "This seems nice and quiet enough."

"Well, of course," answered Vandover, as though dismissing the question
for good. "Now, what are we going to have? I say we have champagne and
oysters."

"Let's have Cliquot, then," exclaimed Ida, which was the only champagne
she had ever heard of besides the California brands.

She was very excited. This was the kind of "gay" time she delighted in,
tete-a-tete champagne suppers with men late at night. She had never been
in such a place as the Imperial before, and the daring and novelty of
what she had done, the whiff of the great city's vice caught in this
manner, sent a little tremor of pleasure and excitement over all her
nerves.

They did not hurry over their little supper, but ate and drank slowly,
and had more oysters to go with the last half of their bottle. Ida's
face was ablaze, her eyes flashing, her blond hair disordered and
falling about her cheeks.

Vandover put his arm about her neck and drew her toward him, and as she
sank down upon him, smiling and complaisant, her hair tumbling upon her
shoulders and her head and throat bent back, he