“And what am I going to do this afternoon?” demanded Miss Ingate, lengthening the space between her nose and her upper lip, and turning down the corners of her lower lip.
“You have to try that new dress on, Winnie,” said Audrey rather reprovingly.
“Alone? Me go alone there? I wouldn’t do it. It’s not respectable the way they look at you and add you up and question you in those trying-on rooms, when they’ve got you.”
“Well, take Elise with you.”
“Me take Elise? I won’t do it, not unless I could keep her mouth full of pins all the time. Whenever we’re alone, and her mouth isn’t full of pins, she always talks to me as if I was an actress. And I’m not.”
“Well, then,” said Miss Nickall kindly, “come with me and Tommy. We haven’t anything to do, and I’m taking Tommy to see Jane Foley. Jane would love to see you.”
“She might,” replied Miss Ingate. “Oh! She might. But I think I’ll walk across to the hotel and just go to bed and sleep it off.”
“Sleep what off?” asked Tommy, with necklace rattling and orchidaceous eyes glittering.
“Oh! Everything! Everything!” shrieked Miss Ingate.
There was one other customer left in the restaurant, a solitary fair, fat man, and as Mr. Gilman’s party was leaving, Audrey last, this solitary fair, fat man caught her eye, bowed, and rose. It was Mr. Cowl, secretary of the National Reformation Society. He greeted her with the assurance of an old and valued friend, and he called her neither Miss nor Mrs.; he called her nothing at all. Audrey accepted his lead.