At six o'clock Gloria was on her way to Dick's office.
It was the first white hour of the twilight, but the hall within the
building was dark.
There was a light in Dick's office. Gloria could see it through the
frosted glass pane of the door. But the door, itself, was locked.
Strange, she thought.
She knocked. She knocked again. There was no answer.
"Oh, bother!" Gloria said, exasperated. "I've missed him. He's
gone!"
But Dick had left a light burning in his office. That must mean that
he was coming back there to work, after he had had his supper.
Suddenly Gloria made up her mind to telephone Miss Briggs.
Miss Briggs would be able to tell her where Dick usually ate when he
was downtown. And then she would hunt Dick up.... She hated to eat
alone. And besides, she wanted to ask Dick who the "Lucie" of the
letters was! She couldn't draw a peaceful breath until she knew that!
She went into a cigar store and looked up Miss Briggs' telephone
number. She called it.
A woman with quavering old voice answered the phone. Miss Briggs
wasn't at home, she said.
"This is Mrs. Briggs ... Miss Briggs' mother," the old voice went on.
"I think Susy's working late. You could probably get her at the
office.... Who is this talking, please?"
But Gloria had hung up.
She stood silent as a statue in the telephone booth.
Was Dick having supper somewhere with Susan Briggs? ... Her first
suspicion of him flicked her brain for an instant. Then it was
gone....
Oh, no ... not Dick! He wasn't the kind of a man who made dates with
his secretary! He wouldn't do such a thing.... She put the thought
aside.
Gloria was very hungry.
There was a little restaurant near by where the food was delicious.
She made up her mind to go there for a bite. Then, afterward, she
would run up to Dick's office and surprise him at his work.
On her way, Gloria bought a movie magazine. She looked through it,
sitting at a corner table of the cozy restaurant with its shaded
lamps and smell of savory food.
The waiter brought her soup ... mock turtle soup, thick and steaming.
Gloria ate it hungrily. She sat back and looked around her, as she
buttered a hot muffin.
She was the only person in the room who was alone.
At the other tables were little groups of two or three. Two, for the
most part ... the eternal duo of a man and a woman.
"You can always tell the married couples from the ones that aren't
married," Gloria giggled to herself. "The married ones usually have
a newspaper to read. They never talk, and they're always glum!"
Then her eye was caught by the familiar look of a man who sat with
his back toward her, in the farthest corner of the restaurant. There
was something about him that made her think of Dick.... It was Dick!
Gloria stood up to go to him.
It wasn't until then that she saw that Dick was not alone.
Across the table from him sat a woman. A woman with blue, shining
eyes and a mouth which might have been too large if it had not been
so fine and firm ... Susan Briggs!
Gloria stared at them. Miss Briggs raised her eyes and saw her,
standing there. She leaned across the table and spoke to Dick.
Gloria's first impulse was to laugh when she saw Miss Briggs and Dick
at that half-hidden table in the corner of the little restaurant.
It was certainly the best laugh of the year--to catch the
strait-laced Dick out "stepping" on the sly! To catch him taking his
secretary out to dinner without telling his wife about it! ... It was
too funny. The corners of Gloria's mouth went up in a malicious
little smile.
Then Dick turned and saw her. And something in his eyes startled her
with its intensity. What had he and Miss Briggs been talking about
to make him look like that? Could it be that he was in love with
her, after all?
All the laughter died on Gloria's lips at the thought. Was she going
to play second fiddle to Miss Briggs in Dick's life? Was she going
to be one of the great army of wives whose husbands are in love with
their office girls? ... Well, she just guessed not! Not so you could
notice it!
With fury in her heart, Gloria marched forward to the table where
Dick was sitting with Miss Briggs. He jumped up and pulled out a
chair for her.
"Well, this is a surprise!" he exclaimed.
"Yes--I noticed you looked surprised when you saw me," Gloria
answered with sarcasm that bit.
Without a word of greeting to Susan Briggs, she sat down at the table.
"Have the waiter bring the rest of my dinner over here," she
commanded Dick. "Unless you have something to say to Miss Briggs
that you'd rather not have your wife hear."
She laughed unpleasantly. She took out her vanity case and dabbed a
bit of rouge on either cheek. Then she raised her eyes to Miss
Briggs.
"You don't have to wear rouge, do you?" she asked. "You're as red as
a beet. You look as if you have a fever, right now!"
It was true. Poor Miss Briggs had flushed to a deep, unbecoming red
under Gloria's words.
She looked as if she wished that the earth would open and swallow her
up. And, as a matter of fact, Miss Briggs was devoutly wishing
herself out of that little restaurant.
She had come there that night alone, when Dick had asked her to work
late. Five minutes after she had begun to eat, Dick, himself, had
walked in. It would have been queer if he had not sat down to share
her lonely meal. A friend could do no less, could he?
Miss Briggs wished now that Dick would explain the whole thing to his
wife. But she knew he wouldn't. She could see that he was going to
let Gloria think anything she wanted to think.
And what Gloria evidently thought was that Dick had taken Miss Briggs
out to dinner ... to "show her a good time."
Miss Briggs drew a breath of relief when Gloria turned her shoulder
upon her, and began to talk to Dick.
"By the way, dear," she said with sugary sweetness, "I forgot to ask
you if your mother's better. Did her trip with you do her good?"
"She's much better," Dick answered. He was puzzled. He knew that
the very last person on earth that Gloria cared to hear about was his
mother. He knew that Gloria detested his mother.... What game was
his wife up to, now, he wondered.
He soon found out. Gloria went on talking to him about things that
didn't matter to her or to him, either. She kept up a flow of
foolish chatter. She spun it out until the meal was almost over.
She did her best to shut Miss Briggs out of the talk. She snubbed
her. She talked in a half-whisper so low that Miss Briggs couldn't
have caught a word if she had tried.
Dick saw the rude and cruel thing that Gloria was doing and he came
to Miss Briggs' rescue just as he would have rescued a mouse that a
cat was torturing.
He leaned across the table toward her. Deliberately he tried to draw
her into the conversation.
"What did Smithers want to see me about to-day, Susy?" he asked
gently.
"About that Parmely injunction case," Miss Briggs answered with lips
that trembled. She fumbled in her purse and pulled out a $2 bill.
She laid it on the tablecloth.
"That's to pay for my dinner," she said, "and I think I'll leave you
people now, and get back to my work.... Good night, Mrs. Gregory."
It cost Miss Briggs an effort to bid Gloria good night. And Gloria
knew it.
"Good night, Miss Briggs," she said airily.
She smiled, with narrowed eyes. She knew she had spoiled Miss
Briggs' dinner. And she was glad of it! She'd show Dick's secretary
that she couldn't go dining around with him, and get away with it!
She'd show her a trick or two worth knowing!
Miss Briggs got up to go. Dick rose with her.
"I wish you wouldn't rush off like this, Susy," he said. "See you
later, though. Get together the data on that injunction case, will
you?"
Wordlessly Miss Briggs nodded. She walked out of the little
restaurant, jerkily, as if she were pulled by unseen wires.
Gloria watched her go, with an amused smile. Then she turned
furiously to Dick.
"So!" she cried. "This is why you didn't want me to come downtown to
eat with you! This is why you don't want to kiss me any more! ... I
see it all, now! How long has this affair with Miss Briggs been
going on, for goodness' sake?"
"Affair with Miss Briggs?" Dick repeated quietly. "I don't know what
you're talking about. Do you know, yourself?"
Gloria stared at him.
"Do you mean to say you don't know Susan Briggs is cuckoo about you?"
she asked. It would be just like Dick not to be able to see it!
"You ought to know it!" she went on. "She doesn't take the trouble
to hide the fact that she's gone on you. You've only got to look at
her to know!"
At that the smoldering anger in Dick burst out. He brought his fist
down noiselessly on the thickly padded tablecloth.
"You ought to be ashamed of talking about a decent girl that way,
Gloria," he said. "And the way you treated her just now was about
the rottenest thing I ever saw...."
"What do I care?" Gloria cried wildly. "Who's Susan Briggs that I
should bow and scrape to her! She needn't think she can go jazzing
around with my husband, and have me treat her like a tin angel!"
Dick looked at her from under his lowered brows.
"You think I'm 'jazzing around' with Susan Briggs?" he asked shortly.
"Sure I do!" Gloria's tone was airy.
"You know I'm not," Dick said quietly. "You know I'm not the kind of
man who chases women. You know I run away from them. If I'd known
Susan Briggs was coming here to-night, I'd have gone elsewhere. And
you know that, too!"
Gloria gave a short, ugly laugh.
"You can bet your boots she knew you were coming here, though!" she
said. "I'll bet she even knows where you go to get shaved, and where
you buy your collars ... everything about you! She makes a study of
you.... And she came here to-night, knowing that you'd show up if
she just waited long enough. And sure enough, you did!"
"I hardly ever eat here," Dick answered. "So she couldn't have
guessed I was coming here, in a month of Sundays. Come on, let's go!
I've had enough of this!--Do you want to come back to the office with
me, or are you going home?"
"I'm not going back to the office," Gloria answered shortly. And
left him.