“Say,” he said, “any time anybody puts anything over on you!”

“And you?”

“There you are!” he cried, eying her fizz.  “Drink it down; it’s good for what ails you.”

“Gawd!” she said.  “I wish I knew what it was is ailin’ me!”

“Drink ’er down!”

“You think because you had me goin’ on these things last night that to-night little sister ain’t goin’ to watch her step.  Well, watch her watch her step,” Nevertheless, she drank rather thirstily half the contents of the glass.  “I knew what I was doin’ every minute of the time last night, all righty.  I was just showin’ us a good time.”

“Sure!”

“It’s all right for us girls to take what we want, but the management don’t want nothing rough around—­not in war-time.”

“Right idea!”

“There’s nothing rough about me, Lew.  None of you fellows can’t say that about me.  I believe in a girl havin’ a good time, but I believe in her always keepin’ her self-respect.  I always say it never hurt no girl to keep her self-respect.”

“Right!”

“When a girl friend of mine loses that, I’m done with her.  That don’t get a girl nowheres.  That’s why I keep to myself as much as I can and don’t mix in with the girls on the bill with me, if—­”

“What’s become of the big blond-looker used to run around with you when you was over at the Bijou?”

“Me and Kit ain’t friends no more.”

“She was some looker.”

“The minute I find out a girl ain’t what a self-respectin’ girl ought to be then that lets me out.  There’s nothin’ would keep me friends with her.  If ever I was surprised in a human, Lew, it was in Kittie Scogin.  She got me my first job here in New York.  I give her credit for it, but she done it because she didn’t have the right kind of a pull with Billy Howe.  She done a lot of favors for me in her way, but the minute I find out a girl ain’t self-respectin’ I’m done with that girl every time.”

“That baby had some pair of shoulders!”

“I ain’t the girl to run a friend down, anyway, when she comes from my home town; but I could tell tales—­Gawd!  I could tell tales!” There was new loquacity and a flush to Miss de Long.  She sipped again, this time almost to the depth of the glass.  “The way to find out about a person, Lew, is to room with ’em in the same boardin’-house.  Beware of the baby stare is all I can tell you.  Beware of that.”

“That’s what you got,” he said, leaning across to top her hand with his, “two big baby stares.”

“Well, Lew Kaminer,” she said, “you’d kid your own shadow.  Callin’ me a baby-stare.  Of all things!  Lew Kaminer!” She looked away to smile.

“Drink it all down, baby-stare,” he said, lifting the glass to her lips.  They were well concealed and back away from the thinning patter of the crowd, so that, as he neared her, he let his face almost graze—­indeed touch, hers.