She looked at him with a shade of commiseration in her face.
"Sickening job, ain"t it, writing for the stage unless you"ve got some sort of pull?"
"This is my first effort," he explained.
"Well, it"s none of my business," she said gloomily. "All I want is the typing of it, only you should see some of the truck I"ve had! I"ve hated to send in the bill. Waste of good time and paper! I don"t suppose yours is like that, but there ain"t much written that"s any good, anyway."
"You"re a hopeful young person, aren"t you?" he remarked, taking a cigarette from the mantelpiece and lighting it. "Have one?"
"No, thank _you_!" she replied, rising briskly to her feet. "I"m not that sort that sits about and smokes cigarettes with strange young men. If you"ll let me know when that work"s going to be ready, I"ll send the janitor up for it."
He smiled deprecatingly.
"You"re not afraid of me, by any chance, are you?" he asked.
Her eyes glowed with contempt as she looked him up and down.
"Afraid of you, sir!" she repeated. "I should say not! I"ve met all sorts of men and I know something about them."
"Then sit down again, please," he begged.
She hesitated for a moment, then subsided once more unwillingly into the chair.
"Don"t know as I want to stay up here gossiping," she remarked. "You"d much better be getting on with your work. Give me one of those cigarettes, anyway," she added abruptly.
"Do you live in the building?" he enquired, as he obeyed her behest.
"Two flats below with pop," she replied. "He"s a bad actor, very seldom in work, and he drinks. There are just the two of us. Now you know as much as is good for you. You"re English, ain"t you?"
"I am," Philip admitted.
"Just out, too, by the way you talk."
"I have been living in Jamaica," he told her, "for many years--clerk in an office there."
"Better have stayed where you were, I should think, if you"ve come here hoping to make a living by that sort of stuff."
"Perhaps you"re right," he agreed, "but you see I am here--been here a week or two, in fact."
"Done much visiting around?" she enquired.
"I"ve scarcely been out," he confessed. "You see, I don"t know the city except from my windows. It"s wonderful from here after twilight."
"Think so," she replied dully. "It"s a hard, hammering, brazen sort of place when you"re living in it from hand to mouth. Not but what we don"t get along all right," she added, a little defiantly. "I"m not grumbling."
"I am sure you"re not," he a.s.sented soothingly. "Tell me--to-night I am a little tired of work. I thought of going out. Be a Good Samaritan and tell me where to find a restaurant in Broadway, somewhere where crowds of people go but not what they call a fashionable place. I want to get some dinner--I haven"t had anything decent to eat for I don"t know how long--and I want to breathe the same atmosphere as other people."
She looked at him a little enviously.
"How much do you want to spend?" she asked bluntly.
"I don"t know that that really matters very much. I have some money.
Things are more expensive over here, aren"t they?"
"I should go to the New Martin House," she advised him, "right at the corner of this block. It"s real swell, and they say the food"s wonderful."
"I could go as I am, I suppose?" he asked, glancing down at his clothes.
She stared at him wonderingly.
"Say, where did you come from?" she exclaimed. "You ain"t supposed to dress yourself out in glad clothes for a Broadway restaurant, not even the best of them."
"Have you been to this place yourself?" he enquired.
"Nope!"
"Come with me," he invited suddenly.
She arose at once to her feet and threw the remains of her cigarette into the grate.
"Say, Mr. Ware," she p.r.o.nounced, "I ain"t that sort, and the sooner you know it the better, especially if I"m going to do your work. I"ll be going."
"Look here," he remonstrated earnestly, "you don"t seem to understand me altogether. What do you mean by saying you"re not that sort?"
"You know well enough," she answered defiantly. "I guess you"re not proposing to give me a supper out of charity, are you?"
"I am asking you to accompany me," he declared, "because I haven"t spoken to a human being for a week, because I don"t know a soul in New York, because I"ve got enough money to pay for two dinners, and because I am fiendishly lonely."
She looked at him and it was obvious that she was more than half convinced. Her brightening expression transformed her face. She was still hesitating, but her inclinations were apparent.
"Say, you mean that straight?" she asked. "You won"t turn around afterwards and expect a lot of soft sawder because you"ve bought me a meal?"
"Don"t be a silly little fool," he answered good-humouredly. "All I want from you is to sit by my side and talk, and tell me what to order."
Her face suddenly fell.
"No good," she sighed. "Haven"t got any clothes."
"If I am going like this," he expostulated, "why can"t you go as you are?
Take your ap.r.o.n off. You"ll be all right."
"There"s my black hat with the ribbon," she reminded herself. "It"s no style, and Stella said yesterday she wouldn"t be seen in a dime show in it."
"Never you mind about Stella," he insisted confidently. "You clap it on your head and come along."
She swung towards the door.
"Meet you in the hall in ten minutes," she promised. "Can"t be any quicker. This is your trouble, you know. I didn"t invite myself."