“Don’t see any particular luck in being accessory to a hat trimming,” grumbled Carl.
“Write now and then, Miss Tommy, won’t you?” said a fellow with eyeglasses and an air of fashion.
“Won’t promise! I’ll wait till I’m rich enough to cable!”
“Shilling a word’s expensive, but you can send ’em to me collect. My word is ‘Hopeful,’”—at which the little party laughed.
“Register another, and make it ‘Uncertain,’” called the girl roguishly, seeing that no one was paying any attention to her friends and their nonsense.
“London first, is it?” asked the rosy youth. “Decided on your hotel?”
“Hotel? It’s going to be my share of a modest Bloomsbury lodging,” she answered. “Got to sing my way from a third-floor-back in a side street to a gorgeous suite at the Ritz!”
“We’ll watch you!” cried three in chorus.
“But we’d rather hear you, darling,” said a nice, tailor-made girl, whose puffy eyelids looked as if she had been crying.
“Blessed lamb! I hope I’ll be better worth hearing! Oh, do go home, all of you; especially you, Jessie! My courage is oozing out at the heels of my shoes. Disappear! I’ve been farewelling actively for an hour and casually for a week. If they don’t take off the gangplank in a minute or two I shan’t have pluck enough to stick to the ship.”