"'Delightful task, to rear the tender thought.' But aren't you afraid he'll learn, for instance, why you are eating peppermints?"
"Oho!" Gray's petite partner lifted her head and eyed him curiously.
"Do you know why?"
"I have a suspicion," he said, with a smile, "that when a girl deliberately perfumes her breath it is in preparation for the struggle in the cab."
Miss Montague laughed unaffectedly. "Say! I could like you, Mr.
Wisenblum, in spite of the fact that I ought to hate you."
"Hate me? But why?"
"Why shouldn't I?"
"Because—I'm rather nice; I dance well."
"You are, and you do. You'd be a perfect dear if you'd only mind your own business. Buddy is of age, and you and I will get along like ham and eggs if you'll remember that."
CHAPTER XXI
"Why the SOS?" Mallow voiced this question as he entered Gray's hotel room early the following evening.