"It's just right," said Grief.
"It isn't quite cool enough," said Wrinkles.
"Well, I guess I know the proper temperature for claret."
"Well, I guess you don't. If it was buttermilk, now, you would know, but
you can't tell anything about claret."
Florinda ultimately decided the question. "It isn't quite cool enough,"
she said, laying her hand on the bottle. "Put it on the window ledge,
Grief."
"Hum! Splutter, I thought you knew more than----"
"Oh, shut up!" interposed the busy Pennoyer from a remote corner. "Who
is going after the potato salad? That's what I want to know. Who is
going?"
"Wrinkles," said Grief.
"Grief," said Wrinkles.
"There," said Pennoyer, coming forward and scanning a late work with an
eye of satisfaction. "There's the three glasses and the little tumbler;
and then, Grief, you will have to drink out of a mug."
"I'll be double-dyed black if I will!" cried Grief. "I wouldn't drink
claret out of a mug to save my soul from being pinched!"
"You duffer, you talk like a bloomin' British chump on whom the sun
never sets! What do you want?"
"Well, there's enough without that--what's the matter with you? Three
glasses and the little tumbler."
"Yes, but if Billie Hawker comes----"
"Well, let him drink out of the mug, then. He----"
"No, he won't," said Florinda suddenly. "I'll take the mug myself."
"All right, Splutter," rejoined Grief meekly. "I'll keep the mug. But,
still, I don't see why Billie Hawker----"
"I shall take the mug," reiterated Florinda firmly.
"But I don't see why----"
"Let her alone, Grief," said Wrinkles. "She has decided that it is
heroic. You can't move her now."
"Well, who is going for the potato salad?" cried Pennoyer again. "That's
what I want to know."
"Wrinkles," said Grief.
"Grief," said Wrinkles.
"Do you know," remarked Florinda, raising her head from where she had
been toiling over the _spaghetti_, "I don't care so much for Billie
Hawker as I did once?" Her sleeves were rolled above the elbows of her
wonderful arms, and she turned from the stove and poised a fork as if
she had been smitten at her task with this inspiration.
There was a short silence, and then Wrinkles said politely, "No."
"No," continued Florinda, "I really don't believe I do." She suddenly
started. "Listen! Isn't that him coming now?"
The dull trample of a step could be heard in some distant corridor, but
it died slowly to silence.
"I thought that might be him," she said, turning to the _spaghetti_
again.
"I hope the old Indian comes," said Pennoyer, "but I don't believe he
will. Seems to me he must be going to see----"
"Who?" asked Florinda.
"Well, you know, Hollanden and he usually dine together when they are
both in town."
Florinda looked at Pennoyer. "I know, Penny. You must have thought I was
remarkably clever not to understand all your blundering. But I don't
care so much. Really I don't."
"Of course not," assented Pennoyer.
"Really I don't."
"Of course not."
"Listen!" exclaimed Grief, who was near the door. "There he comes now."
Somebody approached, whistling an air from "Traviata," which rang loud
and clear, and low and muffled, as the whistler wound among the
intricate hallways. This air was as much a part of Hawker as his coat.
The _spaghetti_ had arrived at a critical stage. Florinda gave it her
complete attention.
When Hawker opened the door he ceased whistling and said gruffly,
"Hello!"
"Just the man!" said Grief. "Go after the potato salad, will you,
Billie? There's a good boy! Wrinkles has refused."
"He can't carry the salad with those gloves," interrupted Florinda,
raising her eyes from her work and contemplating them with displeasure.
"Hang the gloves!" cried Hawker, dragging them from his hands and
hurling them at the divan. "What's the matter with you, Splutter?"
Pennoyer said, "My, what a temper you are in, Billie!"
"I am," replied Hawker. "I feel like an Apache. Where do you get this
accursed potato salad?"
"In Second Avenue. You know where. At the old place."
"No, I don't!" snapped Hawker.
"Why----"
"Here," said Florinda, "I'll go." She had already rolled down her
sleeves and was arraying herself in her hat and jacket.
"No, you won't," said Hawker, filled with wrath. "I'll go myself."
"We can both go, Billie, if you are so bent," replied the girl in a
conciliatory voice.
"Well, come on, then. What are you standing there for?"
When these two had departed, Wrinkles said: "Lordie! What's wrong with
Billie?"
"He's been discussing art with some pot-boiler," said Grief, speaking
as if this was the final condition of human misery.
"No, sir," said Pennoyer. "It's something connected with the now
celebrated violets."
Out in the corridor Florinda said, "What--what makes you so ugly,
Billie?"
"Why, I am not ugly, am I?"
"Yes, you are--ugly as anything."
Probably he saw a grievance in her eyes, for he said, "Well, I don't
want to be ugly." His tone seemed tender. The halls were intensely dark,
and the girl placed her hand on his arm. As they rounded a turn in the
stairs a straying lock of her hair brushed against his temple. "Oh!"
said Florinda, in a low voice.
"We'll get some more claret," observed Hawker musingly. "And some cognac
for the coffee. And some cigarettes. Do you think of anything more,
Splutter?"
As they came from the shop of the illustrious purveyors of potato salad
in Second Avenue, Florinda cried anxiously, "Here, Billie, you let me
carry that!"
"What infernal nonsense!" said Hawker, flushing. "Certainly not!"
"Well," protested Florinda, "it might soil your gloves somehow."
"In heaven's name, what if it does? Say, young woman, do you think I am
one of these cholly boys?"
"No, Billie; but then, you know----"
"Well, if you don't take me for some kind of a Willie, give us peace on
this blasted glove business!"
"I didn't mean----"
"Well, you've been intimating that I've got the only pair of gray gloves
in the universe, but you are wrong. There are several pairs, and these
need not be preserved as unique in history."
"They're not gray. They're----"
"They are gray! I suppose your distinguished ancestors in Ireland did
not educate their families in the matter of gloves, and so you are not
expected to----"
"Billie!"
"You are not expected to believe that people wear gloves only in cold
weather, and then you expect to see mittens."
On the stairs, in the darkness, he suddenly exclaimed, "Here, look out,
or you'll fall!" He reached for her arm, but she evaded him. Later he
said again: "Look out, girl! What makes you stumble around so? Here,
give me the bottle of wine. I can carry it all right. There--now can you
manage?"