hat some
before I begin on my hips. But say, I've had a lovely time."

The leading lady clung to her. "You've saved my life. Why, I forgot all
about being hot and lonely and a couple of thousand miles from New York.
Must you go?"

"Got to. But if you'll promise you won't laugh, I'll make a date for
this evening that'll give you a new sensation anyway. There's going to
be a strawberry social on the lawn of the parsonage of our church. I've
got a booth. You shed that kimono, and put on a thin dress and those
curls and some powder, and I'll introduce you as my friend, Miss Evans.
You don't look Evans, but this is a Methodist church strawberry festival,
and if I was to tell them that you are leading lady of the 'Second Wife'
company they'd excommunicate my booth."

"A strawberry social!" gasped the leading lady. "Do they still have
them?" She did not laugh. "Why, I used to go to strawberry festivals
when I was a little girl in----"

"Careful! You'll be giving away your age, and, anyway, you don't look
it. Fashions in strawberry socials ain't changed much. Better bathe
your eyes in eau de cologne or whatever it is they're always dabbing on
'em in books. See you at eight."

At eight o'clock Pearlie's thump-thump sounded again, and the leading
lady sprang to the door as before. Pearlie stared. This was no
tear-stained, heat-bedraggled creature in an unbecoming red-striped
kimono. It was a remarkably pretty woman in a white lingerie gown over a
pink slip. The leading lady knew a thing or two about the gentle art of
making-up!

"That just goes to show," remarked Pearlie, "that you must never judge a
woman in a kimono or a bathing suit. You look nineteen. Say, I forgot
something down-stairs. Just get your handkerchief and chamois together
and meet in my cubbyhole next to the lobby, will you? I'll be ready for
you."

Down-stairs she summoned the lank bell-boy. "You go outside and tell Sid
Strang I want to see him, will you? He's on the bench with the baseball
bunch."

Pearlie had not seen Sid Strang outside. She did not need to. She knew
he was there. In our town all the young men dress up in their pale gray
suits and lavender-striped shirts after supper on summer evenings. Then
they stroll down to the Burke House, buy a cigar and sit down on the
benches in front of the hotel to talk baseball and watch the girls go by.
It is astonishing to note the number of our girls who have letters to
mail