"A call—bless us! And are you really going to wear those gray gloves you're holding there, Billie? Say, wait until you get around the corner. They won't stand 'em on this street."
"Oh, well," said Hawker, depreciating the gloves—"oh, well."
The girl looked up at him. "Who you going to call on?"
"Oh," said Hawker, "a friend."
"Must be somebody most extraordinary, you look so dreadfully correct. Come back, Billie, won't you? Come back and dine with us."
"Why, I—I don't believe I can."
"Oh, come on! It's fun when we all dine together. Won't you, Billie?"
"Well, I——"
"Oh, don't be so stupid!" The girl stamped her foot and flashed her eyes at him angrily.
"Well, I'll see—I will if I can—I can't tell——" He left her rather precipitately.
Hawker eventually appeared at a certain austere house where he rang the bell with quite nervous fingers.
But she was not at home. As he went down the steps his eyes were as those of a man whose fortunes have tumbled upon him. As he walked down the street he wore in some subtle way the air of a man who has been grievously wronged. When he rounded the corner, his lips were set strangely, as if he were a man seeking revenge.
CHAPTER XXIII.
"It's just right," said Grief.
"It isn't quite cool enough," said Wrinkles.
"Well, I guess I know the proper temperature for claret."
"Well, I guess you don't. If it was buttermilk, now, you would know, but you can't tell anything about claret."
Florinda ultimately decided the question. "It isn't quite cool enough," she said, laying her hand on the bottle. "Put it on the window ledge, Grief."
"Hum! Splutter, I thought you knew more than——"
"Oh, shut up!" interposed the busy Pennoyer from a remote corner. "Who is going after the potato salad? That's what I want to know. Who is going?"
"Wrinkles," said Grief.
"Grief," said Wrinkles.
"There," said Pennoyer, coming forward and scanning a late work with an eye of satisfaction. "There's the three glasses and the little tumbler; and then, Grief, you will have to drink out of a mug."
"I'll be double-dyed black if I will!" cried Grief. "I wouldn't drink claret out of a mug to save my soul from being pinched!"
"You duffer, you talk like a bloomin' British chump on whom the sun never sets! What do you want?"
"Well, there's enough without that—what's the matter with you? Three glasses and the little tumbler."
"Yes, but if Billie Hawker comes——"
"Well, let him drink out of the mug, then. He——"
"No, he won't," said Florinda suddenly. "I'll take the mug myself."
"All right, Splutter," rejoined Grief meekly. "I'll keep the mug. But, still, I don't see why Billie Hawker——"
"I shall take the mug," reiterated Florinda firmly.
"But I don't see why——"
"Let her alone, Grief," said Wrinkles. "She has decided that it is heroic. You can't move her now."
"Well, who is going for the potato salad?" cried Pennoyer again. "That's what I want to know."
"Wrinkles," said Grief.
"Grief," said Wrinkles.
"Do you know," remarked Florinda, raising her head from where she had been toiling over the spaghetti, "I don't care so much for Billie Hawker as I did once?" Her sleeves were rolled above the elbows of her wonderful arms, and she turned from the stove and poised a fork as if she had been smitten at her task with this inspiration.
There was a short silence, and then Wrinkles said politely, "No."
"No," continued Florinda, "I really don't believe I do." She suddenly started. "Listen! Isn't that him coming now?"
The dull trample of a step could be heard in some distant corridor, but it died slowly to silence.
"I thought that might be him," she said, turning to the spaghetti again.
"I hope the old Indian comes," said Pennoyer, "but I don't believe he will. Seems to me he must be going to see——"
"Who?" asked Florinda.
"Well, you know, Hollanden and he usually dine together when they are both in town."
Florinda looked at Pennoyer. "I know, Penny. You must have thought I was remarkably clever not to understand all your blundering. But I don't care so much. Really I don't."
"Of course not," assented Pennoyer.
"Really I don't."
"Of course not."
"Listen!" exclaimed Grief, who was near the door. "There he comes now." Somebody approached, whistling an air from "Traviata," which rang loud and clear, and low and muffled, as the whistler wound among the intricate hallways. This air was as much a part of Hawker as his coat. The spaghetti had arrived at a critical stage. Florinda gave it her complete attention.
When Hawker opened the door he ceased whistling and said gruffly, "Hello!"
"Just the man!" said Grief. "Go after the potato salad, will you, Billie? There's a good boy! Wrinkles has refused."
"He can't carry the salad with those gloves," interrupted Florinda, raising her eyes from her work and contemplating them with displeasure.
"Hang the gloves!" cried Hawker, dragging them from his hands and hurling them at the divan. "What's the matter with you, Splutter?"
Pennoyer said, "My, what a temper you are in, Billie!"
"I am," replied Hawker. "I feel like an Apache. Where do you get this accursed potato salad?"
"In Second Avenue. You know where. At the old place."
"No, I don't!" snapped Hawker.
"Why——"
"Here," said Florinda, "I'll go." She had already rolled down her sleeves and was arraying herself in her hat and jacket.
"No, you won't," said Hawker, filled with wrath. "I'll go myself."
"We can both go, Billie, if you are so bent," replied the girl in a conciliatory voice.
"Well, come on, then. What are you standing there for?"
When these two had departed, Wrinkles said: "Lordie! What's wrong with Billie?"
"He's been discussing art with some pot-boiler," said Grief, speaking as if this was the final condition of human misery.
"No, sir," said Pennoyer. "It's something connected with the now celebrated violets."
Out in the corridor Florinda said, "What—what makes you so ugly, Billie?"
"Why, I am not ugly, am I?"
"Yes, you are—ugly as anything."
Probably he saw a grievance in her eyes, for he said, "Well, I don't want to be ugly." His tone seemed tender. The halls were intensely dark, and the girl placed her hand on his arm. As they rounded a turn in the stairs a straying lock of her hair brushed against his temple. "Oh!" said Florinda, in a low voice.
"We'll get some more claret," observed Hawker musingly. "And some cognac for the coffee. And some cigarettes.