“Won’t you please answer my questions about Mr. North? Have you seen him? Are you friends again, Phil, dear? Don’t let it go on any longer, please, please. What can he think of us, Phil? He must believe that I have allowed you to think it all his fault. Please write about it, dear. It isn’t like you to let me worry about anything like this and not try to help me.”
Phillip, moved by this last appeal, answered her questions. “I am going to give him an opportunity to explain,” he wrote. “If he cares to do that and shows himself decently sorry, all right. Meanwhile don’t worry, Margey. I don’t believe John North cares a Continental. I daresay he’s mighty glad to be rid of me.”
From the latter statement it may be surmised that Phillip was a little piqued at John’s seeming indifference. Phillip was very happy nowadays and his resentment against John was rapidly cooling. After all, the worst had not happened; Betty had never heard of what he was pleased to call his disgrace. And even though John could claim no credit for that fact, yet Phillip was inclined to consider it a mitigating circumstance. It is probable that had John appeared to Phillip at that time and expressed regrets for having unintentionally wounded the other’s pride, he would have been forgiven. But as John was unaware of having transgressed, that event was impossible. When Phillip wrote to Margaret of giving John an opportunity to explain, he referred to the note which he had frequently postponed writing but which he really intended to write.
Phillip conferred with Chester in regard to the theatre tickets, recognizing in his roommate an authority on the subject. And Chester, after vainly endeavouring to persuade Phillip to see “Louis XI.” instead of “Charles I.,” as being rather more “bloody,” came to his assistance with advice.
“What you want to do,” he said, “is to go over to Thurston’s and leave an order in advance. They’ll get you just what you want.”
“But won’t that be awfully expensive?” asked Phillip.
“Well, maybe it would. I’d forgotten. The only thing to do, then, is to get in line.”
“What’s that?”
“You go to the theatre the night before the sale and stand in line until the next morning. It’s not bad fun, really. I’ll tell you what! We’ll go in together and take turns waiting!”
“But I didn’t know you were going to see him?”