e something that
made you angry--that was stupid and--and----"

She stopped. The forbidding silence on his part was like a wall that
crossed her path, was like a veil that blinded and choked her.

"Not at all," he said, quickly. "Where did you get that idea?...
Hello--hello--are you there, Norma?" he added, when on her part in turn
there was a blank silence.

For Norma, strangled by an uprising of tears as sudden as it was
unexpected and overwhelming, could make no audible answer. Why she
should be crying she could not clearly think, but she was bathed in
tears, and her heart was heavy with unspeakable desolation.

"Norma!" she heard him say, urgently. "What is it? Norma----?"

"Nothing!" she managed to utter, in a voice that stemmed the flood for
only a second.

"Norma," Chris said, simply, "I am coming out. Meet me downstairs in ten
minutes. I want to see you!"

Both telephones clicked, and Norma found herself sitting blankly in the
sudden silence of the room, her brain filled with a confusion of shamed
and doubting and fearful thoughts, and her heart flooded with joy.

Five minutes later she stepped from the elevator into the lobby, and
selected a big chair that faced obliquely on the entrance doors. The
little stir in the wide, brightly lighted place always interested her
and amused her; women drifting from the dining-room with their light
wraps over their arms, messengers coming and going, the far strains of
the orchestra mingling pleasantly with the nearer sounds of feet and
voices.

To-night her spirit was soaring. Nothing mattered, nothing of her
doubts, nothing of his coldness, except that Chris was even now coming
toward her! Her mind followed the progress of his motor-car, up through
the hot, deserted streets.

Suddenly it seemed to her that she could not bear the emotion of
meeting. With every man's figure that came through the wide-open doors
her heart thumped and pounded.

His voice; she would hear it again. She would see the gray eyes, and
watch the firm, quick movement of his jaw.

Other men, meeting other women, or parting from other women, came and
went. Norma liked the big, homely boy in olive drab, who kissed the
little homely mother so affectionately.

She glanced at her wrist watch, twisted about to confirm its unwelcome
news by the big clock. Quarter to ten, and no Chris. Norma settled down
again to waiting and watching.

Ten o'clock. Quarter past ten. He was not coming! No, alth