ake notice. And, whatever you do, don't leave your name and address!
That's the old, moth-eaten gag they're sure to try to pull on you.
Tell 'em there's nothing doing. Say you're out for a quick decision!
Stand 'em on their heads!"

Jill got up, fired by this eloquence. She called for her check.

"Good-bye," she said. "I'm going to do exactly as you say. Where can I
find you afterwards?" she said to Nelly.

"You aren't really going?"

"I am!"

Nelly scribbled on a piece of paper.

"Here's my address. I'll be in all evening."

"I'll come and see you. Good-bye, Mr. Brown. And thank you."

"You're welcome!" said Mr. Brown.

Nelly watched Jill depart with wide eyes.

"Why did you tell her to do that?" she said.

"Why not?" said Mr. Brown. "I started something, didn't I? Well, I
guess I'll have to be leaving, too. Got to get back to rehearsal. Say,
I like that friend of yours, Nelly. There's no yellow streak about
her! I wish her luck!"

CHAPTER X

JILL IGNORES AUTHORITY

I

The offices of Messrs. Goble and Cohn were situated, like everything
else in New York that appertains to the drama, in the neighbourhood of
Times Square. They occupied the fifth floor of the Gotham Theatre on
West Forty-second Street. As there was no lift in the building except
the small private one used by the two members of the firm, Jill walked
up the stairs, and found signs of a thriving business beginning to
present themselves as early as the third floor, where half a dozen
patient persons of either sex had draped themselves like roosting
fowls upon the banisters. There were more on the fourth floor, and the
landing of the fifth, which served the firm as a waiting-room, was
quite full. It is the custom of New York theatrical managers--the
lowest order of intelligence, with the possible exception of the
_limax maximus_ or garden slug, known to science--to omit from their
calculations the fact that they are likely every day to receive a
large number of visitors, whom they will be obliged to keep waiting;
and that these people will require somewhere to wait. Such
considerations never occur to them. Messrs. Goble and Cohn had
provided for those who called to see them one small bench on the
landing, conveniently situated at the intersecting point of three
draughts, and had let it go at that.

Nobody, except perhaps the night-watchman, had ever seen this bench
empty. At whatever hour of the day you happened to call, you would