A few more customers drifted in. Then even the stragglers stopped coming. It was very late.
"He's deserted you; you see that now?" Madame Bestris sneered.
Mary stood up. There were tears in her eyes. "You can't—you don't—know—how I feel," she choked. "You don't care!" She turned and ran up the stairs, crying.
Several Earthmen, still in the big room, turned to watch. The torches were misty twinkles now. The last couples climbed the stairs and then Miss Bestris, too, went to bed.
THE BLUE morning came. The town awoke; commerce began.
At seven, Miss Bestris lay in bed frowning, considering the events of the previous evening. But she was not so annoyed that she forgot to call a doctor on the teleview and arrange for him to come at nine to give a physical examination.
Her bulk out of bed, she dressed and went to the kitchen to brew a pot of hemp tea. The cleaning maid, moving about in the next room, heard Miss Bestris call sharply: "Flavia! Come in here!"
Flavia appeared with a dust rag in her hand.
"Did you cut this cake?"