Part 30 (2/2)
”h.e.l.lo! What are you doing here?”
They turned. Estelle Monks, of the second floor front at Miss Pim's, owner of the white fox stole and the circulating garments, was standing beside them, jauntily alert.
”Goodness' sakes, it's Estelle!” exclaimed Ida. ”Well, what are _you_ doing--?”
”Oh, I contribute,” said Estelle evasively.
She was in a short tailored suit, Eton collar, Alpine hat and feather.
With her hands in her side pockets, she was very direct, at ease, mannish, but not disagreeably so--rather attractive with her dark eyes, which, as Ida expressed it, had the ”real come-hither” in their mocking depths.
A boy came shuffling out, saying nasally:
”Mr. Blood will see you naow.”
They left Estelle Monks indulging in a long whistle of surprise, traversed a long chorus of clicking machines, and discovered a room of comparative quiet, s.p.a.cious, with embattled desks. Harrigan Blood was waiting, a smile on his face as he fingered the _two_ cards.
”Very nice of you to bring Miss Summers,” he said jerkily, making his own introduction. ”Added pleasure, I'm sure!”
Dore, who had expected some show of irritation, wondered in an amused way how he would manage to procure the tete-a-tete which she had just rendered impossible. In ten minutes Blood, without seeming to have considered the question, had resolved the knot by calling in Tony Rex, one of the younger cartoonists, a boyish person who eyed them with malicious curiosity, and having consigned Ida to him for a tour of inspection, had availed himself of the first interval to say:
”Come, you can see all this any time. You are not going to get out of a talk with me by any such tricks.”
She consented, laughing, to be led back.
”Why did you do this?” he said, irritated.
”Do what?”
”Bring a governess?”
”Because I'm a very proper person.”
”It annoys me. I hate women who annoy me!” he said abruptly.
She smiled in provoking silence, while, with a quick excusing gesture, he lighted a cigar.
”You seem more natural here,” she said, glancing at his ruffled hair and careless tie. ”I'd like to see you at work.”
He rose to get a copy of the editorial sheet for the day, and handed it to her.
”You inspired that.”
She took the editorial, which was ent.i.tled ”Waste,” and ran down its heavily leaded phrases, smiling to herself at these moralizations of the devil turned friar. He saw her amus.e.m.e.nt, and took the editorial abruptly.
”You won't understand--that's what I _believe_!”
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