“Oh, Herbert, wait until you see it! I shall weep my eyes out if you don’t agree to buy it for me at once. And the price! Ridiculously cheap! We’ll never run into bargains like these in New York.”
“We’ll see, Sally,” replied the man. “I’m not satisfied yet that this isn’t a flim-flam game.”
He opened a door which bore no number, and stood aside for the others to pass ahead of him. Penny caught a glimpse of a long, empty hallway.
“That must be the way to Room 22,” she thought.
She waited until the men and women had gone ahead, and then cautiously opened the door which had closed behind them. No one questioned her as she moved noiselessly down the corridor. At its very end loomed a green painted door, its top edge gracefully circular. Beside it at a small table sat a man who evidently was stationed there as a guard.
Penny walked slowly, watching the men and women ahead. They paused at the table and showed slips of cardboards. The guard then opened the green door and allowed them to pass through.
It looked so very easy that Penny decided to try her luck. She drew closer.
“Your card please,” requested the doorman.
“I am afraid I haven’t mine with me,” said Penny, flashing her most beguiling smile.
The smile was entirely lost upon the man. “Then I can’t let you in,” he said.