"There's so many Hebrew girls in the profession—Not that I don't like 'em, you understand—"
"Go on."
"Well, I heard enough to know that she's up to some deviltry—her and that Maxey Melcher. They've got a photographer and witnesses. Your brother is one of 'em."
"Jim? What—"
"It's true. It's a bad crowd Mister Jim's in with. And there's something big in the air. Millions it is. And her saying she'll box my ears. The hussy! I've heard 'em talking before to-night."
"Tell me everything, Croft—quickly."
"I have. Only you better warn your brother—"
The assistant stage-manager thrust his head through the curtains, shouting: "Your cue, Miss Knight. What the devil—"
With a gasp Lorelei leaped to her feet and fled from the room.
Mrs. Croft shook her head mournfully, snuffled a few times, then scowled at the disarray Lilas had left behind. She breathed a feeble malediction upon the cause of it, seized a hat-pin, and, holding it like a dagger, thrust it viciously into first one, then another of the gowns hanging on their hooks.