“You do know your sex! I’ll use all the art I’ve ever acquired.”
“Respectful devotion without humility, and pained self-control. That’s your lay.”
He laughed heartily. “We’ll drift for the present.”
“Well, now, drift out. I want to go up and sound her. I’m simply expiring to know what she’s thinking about at the present moment.”
XXXIII
WHEN Ida reached her room she put her ear to the closed door leading into Ora’s, and heard the scratch of the hotel pen.
“May I come in?” she asked softly.
There was a rattle of paper, the snap of a trunk lid, and then Ora said in tones as dulcet, “Come in, dear.”
Ida entered and found Ora extended on the sofa.
“What did you run off like that for?” she asked, as she selected the least uncomfortable of the chairs in the fresh and artistic but hardly luxurious room. “The poor man was as glum as a funeral until he’d had two cups of coffee and several cigarettes.”