e
a kid. And the whitest teeth!"

"Yes, they were--white," said Rose. "Well?"

"Well, I said, 'Won't I do instead?' 'You bet you'll do!' he said. And
then he told me his name, and how he was living out in Spokane, and his
wife was dead, and he had made a lot of money--fruit, or real estate, or
something. He talked a lot about it at lunch, but I didn't pay any
attention, as long as he really has it a lot I care how--"

"At lunch?"

"Everything from grape-fruit to coffee. I didn't know it could be done
in one hour. Believe me, he had those waiters jumping. It takes money.
He asked all about you, and ma, and everything. And he kept looking at
me and saying, 'It's wonderful!' I said, 'Isn't it!' but I meant the
lunch. He wanted me to go driving this afternoon--auto and everything.
Kept calling me Rose. It made me kind of mad, and I told him how you
look. He said, 'I suppose so,' and asked me to go to a show to-night.
Listen, did you press my Georgette? And the blue?"

"I'll iron the waist while you're eating. I'm not hungry. It only takes
a minute. Did you say he was grey?"

"Grey? Oh, you mean--why, just here, and here. Interesting, but not a
bit old. And he's got that money look that makes waiters and doormen and
taxi drivers just hump. I don't want any supper. Just a cup of tea. I
haven't got enough time to dress in, decently, as it is."

Al, draped in the doorway, removed his cigarette to give greater force
to his speech. "Your story interests me strangely, little gell. But
there's a couple of other people that would like to eat, even if you
wouldn't. Come on with that supper, Ro. Nobody staked me to a lunch
to-day."

Rose turned to her stove again. Two carmine spots had leaped suddenly to
her cheeks. She served the meal in silence, and ate nothing, but that
was not remarkable. For the cook there is little appeal in the meat that
she has tended from its moist and bloody entrance in the butcher's
paper, through the basting or broiling stage to its formal appearance on
the platter. She saw that Al and her father were served. Then she went
back to the kitchen, and the thud of her iron was heard as she deftly
fluted the ruffles of the crepe blouse. Floss appeared when the meal was
half eaten, her hair shiningly coiffed, the pink ribbons of her corset
cover showing under her thin kimono. She poured herself a cup of tea and
drank it in little quick, nervous gulps. She looked deliriously young,
and fragile and appeal