"No--no! Let Ysobel send it. You do it, Ysobel. Here, gimme your pen,
Hy."

She wrote with her breath half a moan in her throat, and her bosom
heaving and flashing the diamond heart.

"Send it right off, Ysobel darlin'--read it and send it off, darlin'."

She daubed a rabbit's foot under each eye and slid into the silver-fox
coat.

"Read it, darlin', and send it."

Ysobel read slowly like a child spelling out its task.

Breakers--ahead. Stay at home, dearie.
DELLA.

Through eyes that were magnified through the glaze of tears Ysobel
burrowed her head in the silver-fox collar.

"Oh, Del--Del darlin'--I'm wise--but, oh, my darlin'."

"Come on. Whatta you think this is, a soul-kiss scene--you two?"

"Comin', Hy--comin'."

"Della darlin'."

"Good night, Ysobel; lemme go, dearie--lemme go."

Then out through a labyrinth of stacked scenery, with her elbow in the
cup of his hand, and the silver shimmering in the gloom.

"Gad, you will have that scrawny little hanger-on around and gettin' on
my nerves! If I weren't always humorin' the daylights out of you she
wouldn't spoil a ballet of mine for fifteen minutes, she--"

"It's darn little I ask out of you, but you gotta lemme have her--you
gotta lemme have that much, or the whole blame show can--"

"Keep cool, there, Tragedy Queen, and watch your step! I don't want you
limpin' in there to-night with a busted ankle on top of your long face."

They high-stepped through a dirty passageway stacked with stage
bric-a-brac, out into a whiff of night air, across a pavement, and into
a wine-colored limousine.

He climbed in after her, throwing open the great fur collar of his coat
and lighting his cigar.

They plunged forward into the white flare of Broadway, and within her
plate-glass inclosure she was like a doomed queen riding to her destiny.

"Light up there, Dolly! No long face to-night! The crowd's going to be
there waitin' for you. Look at me, you little devil--you little devil!"

"Gawd, what are you made of? Ain't you got _no_ feelings?"

"Tush! You ain't real on that talk. I know you better'n you know
yourself. Ain't I told you that you can bring the little sister on and
lemme look her over? There's nothin' I wouldn't do for you, Beauty. You
got me crazy to-night over you. Eh! Pretty soft for a little hayseed
like you!"

She smiled suddenly, flashed her teeth, cooed in her throat, and reared
her white throat out of its fur like a swan rea