She meant to bring him home to supper after the Opera,
where, in spite of my first experience, we're constant now in attendance;
but, to her surprise, then dismay, then almost abject remonstrance, I
prepared to go out before dinner to inspect the new studio Kitty and Cadge
have taken.
"Be back in good season?" she pleaded. "How _could_ you make an
engagement for the night when Strathay.--Not wait for you! Why Helen, you
can't--what would Strathay think if I allowed you to arrive alone at the
Opera?"
"Then can't you and Peggy entertain him?"
"Peggy?" She looked at me with blank incredulity. "You wouldn't stay away
when Strathay--why, Helen, you didn't mean that. Drive straight to the
Metropolitan when you leave your--those people, if you don't wish to come
back for me. Where do they live?" she groaned despairingly.
"Top of a business block in West Fourteenth Street."
I thought she would have refused me the carriage for such a trip, but she
didn't venture quite so far as that; and the hour I spent with the girls
was a blessed breathing spell.
"What a barn!" I cried, when I had climbed more stairs than I could count
to the big loft where I found them.
Pages:
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263