accursed
little world. Here, let's pick up the sheets. There's enough work for
you."

She looked at him curiously.

"Have you been in that chair ever since?" she asked.

"Ever since," he assented enthusiastically.

"Any lunch?"

"Not a scrap. Never thought about it."

"You'll make yourself sick, that's what you'll do," she declared. "Go out
and get something at once."

"Never even thought about lunch," he repeated, half to himself. "Where
have you been?"

"Some luck," she replied. "First place I dropped in at. Found there was a
girl gone home for the day, fainted. Lots of work to do, so they just
stuck me down in her chair. Three dollars they gave me. The girl's coming
back to-morrow, though, worse luck."

"When did you have your lunch?"

"Haven't had any. I'm going to make myself a cup of tea now."

He reached for his hat.

"Not on your life" he exclaimed. "Come along, Miss Martha Grimes. I
have written lines--you just wait till you type them! I tell you it's
what I have had at the back of my head for months. It's there now on
paper--living, flaring words. Come along."

"Where to?"

"We are going to eat," he insisted. "I am faint, and so are you. We are
going to that same place, and we'll have lunch and dinner in one."

"Nothing doing," she snapped. "You'll see some more people who recognise
you."

He waved his hand contemptuously.

"Who cares! If you don't come along with me, I'll go up town to the
Waldorf or the Ritz Carlton. I'll waste my money and advertise myself.
Come along--that same little quiet corner. I don't suppose your friends
will be there again."

"Stella won't," she admitted doubtfully. "She's going to Sherry's. I'd
just as soon be out," she went on ruminatingly. "Shouldn't be surprised
if she didn't bring that guy in, after all."

He had already rung the bell of the lift.

"Look at me!" she exclaimed ironically. "Nice sort of an object I am to
take out! Got a raincoat on--though it's dry enough--because my coat's
gone at the seams."

"If you don't stop talking like that," he declared, "I'll march into one
of those great stores and order everything a woman wants to wear. Look at
me. Did you ever see such clothes!"

"A man's different," she protested. "Besides, you've got a way with you
of looking as though you could wear better clothes if you wanted
to--something superior. I don't like it. I should like you better if you
were common."

"You're going to like me better," h