r years. We always
miss each other." She paused, hesitating. "Yes, I should like that. But
he'll be busy, maybe?"

"He gives his first concert at Carnegie Hall, week after next. Better
send him a box if you can."

"Yes, I'll manage it." Thea took his hand again. "Oh, I should like
that, Fred!" she added impulsively. "Even if I were put out, he'd get
the idea,"--she threw back her head,--"for there is an idea!"

"Which won't penetrate here," he tapped his brow and began to laugh.
"You are an ungrateful huzzy, COMME LES AUTRES!"

Thea detained him as he turned away. She pulled a flower out of a
bouquet on the piano and absently drew the stem through the lapel of his
coat. "I shall be walking in the Park to-morrow afternoon, on the
reservoir path, between four and five, if you care to join me. You know
that after Harsanyi I'd rather please you than anyone else. You know a
lot, but he knows even more than you."

"Thank you. Don't try to analyze it. SCHLAFEN SIE WOHL!" he kissed her
fingers and waved from the door, closing it behind him.

"He's the right sort, Thea." Dr. Archie looked warmly after his
disappearing friend. "I've always hoped you'd make it up with Fred."

"Well, haven't I? Oh, marry him, you mean! Perhaps it may come about,
some day. Just at present he's not in the marriage market any more than
I am, is he?"

"No, I suppose not. It's a damned shame that a man like Ottenburg should
be tied up as he is, wasting all the best years of his life. A woman
with general paresis ought to be legally dead."

"Don't let us talk about Fred's wife, please. He had no business to get
into such a mess, and he had no business to stay in it. He's always been
a softy where women were concerned."

"Most of us are, I'm afraid," Dr. Archie admitted meekly.

"Too much light in here, isn't there? Tires one's eyes. The stage lights
are hard on mine." Thea began turning them out. "We'll leave the little
one, over the piano." She sank down by Archie on the deep sofa. "We two
have so much to talk about that we keep away from it altogether; have
you noticed? We don't even nibble the edges. I wish we had Landry here
to-night to play for us. He's very comforting."

"I'm afraid you don't have enough personal life, outside your work,
Thea." The doctor looked at her anxiously.

She smiled at him with her eyes half closed. "My dear doctor, I don't
have any. Your work becomes your personal life. You are not much good
until it does.