ts concerning the Flower Garden, that apple of
Isadore Abrahams' eye, in a snort of loathing. "My God! What a place!"

He walked quickly away and disappeared. And Ginger, beaming happily,
swooped on Sally's table like a homing pigeon.

4

"Good Lord, I say, what ho!" cried Ginger. "Fancy meeting you here. What
a bit of luck!" He glanced over his shoulder warily. "Has that blighter
pipped?"

"Pipped?"

"Popped," explained Ginger. "I mean to say, he isn't coming back or any
rot like that, is he?"

"Mr. Carmyle? No, he has gone."

"Sound egg!" said Ginger with satisfaction. "For a moment, when I saw
you yarning away together, I thought he might be with your party. What
on earth is he doing over here at all, confound him? He's got all Europe
to play about in, why should he come infesting New York? I say, it
really is ripping, seeing you again. It seems years... Of course, one
get's a certain amount of satisfaction writing letters, but it's not the
same. Besides, I write such rotten letters. I say, this really is rather
priceless. Can't I get you something? A cup of coffee, I mean, or an egg
or something? By jove! this really is top-hole."

His homely, honest face glowed with pleasure, and it seemed to Sally as
though she had come out of a winter's night into a warm friendly room.
Her mercurial spirits soared.

"Oh, Ginger! If you knew what it's like seeing you!"

"No, really? Do you mean, honestly, you're braced?"

"I should say I am braced."

"Well, isn't that fine! I was afraid you might have forgotten me."

"Forgotten you!"

With something of the effect of a revelation it suddenly struck Sally
how far she had been from forgetting him, how large was the place he had
occupied in her thoughts.

"I've missed you dreadfully," she said, and felt the words inadequate as
she uttered them.

"What ho!" said Ginger, also internally condemning the poverty of speech
as a vehicle for conveying thought.

There was a brief silence. The first exhilaration of the reunion over,
Sally deep down in her heart was aware of a troubled feeling as though
the world were out of joint. She forced herself to ignore it, but it
would not be ignored. It grew. Dimly she was beginning to realize what
Ginger meant to her, and she fought to keep herself from realizing it.
Strange things were happening to her to-night, strange emotions stirring
her. Ginger seemed somehow different, as if she were really seeing him
for the first