A silence fell between them which she tried to break with a rather shame faced explanation.
"This girl and Mac have had a quarrel. I'm trying to patch it up. Wish you'd get him down here a minute."
"It would be a lot better for the girl," said Dan, slowly, "if you didn't patch it up."
"What do you mean?"
Dan looked troubled.
"Clarke's a nice fellow all right," he said, "but when it comes to girls—" he broke off abruptly. "Do you know him?"
"I've seen him round the theater," she said.
"Then you ought to know what I mean."
Birdie looked absently across the barren yard.
"Men are all rotten," she said bitterly, then added with feminine inconsistency, "Go on, Dan, be a darling. Fix it so I can speak to him without the old man catching on."