trying to do."

"Say, Marge, it's a good thing you've got on your white broadcloth and
your willow plumes."

"You can get 'em at Delatour's now for twenty-five dollars."

"Hello, Fannie, did you get Ned?"

"I got him all right, but what do you think? He's got another date for
to-night, so he can't come."

"Oh, flam!"

"Well, well, here's Dora now, as usual. I suppose she'll try to butt
in."

But she doesn't. She just hesitates beside the table long enough to
say: "Got to sweep right along, girlies. Going to buzz out to the
Inland Inn for dinner with Ned. Yep. What's the matter? You know Ned.
Our old friend Ned. The same. He's waiting for me now. G'bye."

Talk of nerve! You have to hand it to that Dora girl!

Exit Dora. Enter Jim and five or six other men, mostly husbands to the
women already present.

Jim begins by asking if anybody has seen Dora. The ensemble tells him
not only that but everything else about Dora. Harry orders a round of
drinks. So does Charlie. Somebody praises the drawn-butter sauce at
the Suddington. This is met with the merits of the pineapple parfait
at the La Fontaine. Jim orders a round of drinks. Jim is willing to
eat his hat if Dora's divorce wasn't her husband's fault. Must have
been. Never saw the husband. But Dora's character! Jim drinks off one
of the cocktails standing in front of his right-hand neighbor Frank,
and returns to Dora's character. No straighter little girl ever came
to this town. On hearing this from her husband, Margaret gets up and
leaves the Tea Room and goes to the Purple Parlor and cries. Fannie
takes her opportunity and begins to tell Jim how attentive Ned has
been lately to Margaret. This is so helpful that Jim drinks off
another of Frank's cocktails and runs to the Purple Parlor to find
Margaret. She's still crying. He thinks she's crying because Ned is
away with Dora. He rebukes her. In King Arthur's vein. Is he not her
husband? Woman, tell him that. But dignity soon tapers off with him
into the "Now I warn you to cut it out" of the tyrannical manikin
with a cinder in the eye of his self-conceit. Their friends hear them
quarreling and follow them into the Purple Parlor. There's a terrible
row in the Purple Parlor. The Purple Parlor is full of persons
explaining. Fannie explains. Charlie explains. Each person explains,
individually, to each other person, individually. Each couple reaches
a satisfactory explanation. But, somehow, when they start to explai