Marion hurried on her street dress so as not to keep her waiting, and very soon after eleven o’clock the girls took a cab and were driven up town together.
“I have a lot of news for you, Marion,” was Miss Allyn’s greeting, “and now that we have a few minutes together we must make up for lost time and tell each other everything.”
“I haven’t much to tell,” was Marion’s quick answer; “only Carlotta hates me and is trying to make trouble for me, and I can’t help feeling that she is going to be successful.”
“She’s a bad woman, from all accounts,” said Miss Allyn, shortly; “for, besides being divorced from her husband, she is Clayton Graham’s mistress—and not a very faithful one, either, according to rumor.”
“How perfectly awful,” said Marion, gasping, “and to think that I went home with her one night in the hope of making a friend of her.”
Miss Allyn looked at her with an inquiring glance, and Marion made haste to tell her all about it.
“You were lucky to get out so easily,” she said, when the story was finished. “I wouldn’t trust that woman the length of my nose. Why I believe she’d knife a person if she got very angry.”
“Well, now tell me your news,” said Marion, quickly. “I want to get that unpleasant taste out of my mind as soon as possible.”
“My news will make your heart go pit-a-pat, Marion,” said Miss Allyn, laughing, “for I saw your devoted admirer, Dr. Reginald Brookes, to-day, and he fairly loaded me down with tender messages for you.”
“Why didn’t he bring them himself?” asked Marion, slyly.