"I'd love to have you. And if it doesn't bore you, would you tell me something about your very beautiful profession? You see, stage dancing fascinates me, and I'm taking lessons and I've an inclination to become a professional."
"I'd love to talk about it with you!" said Marie Cliff impulsively. "I'll tell you everything I know about it.... And I do know a little, because I have been on the stage since I was a child."
"You're one now," said Stephanie, laughing, "—an adorable one!" And she bent and kissed the little dancer on the lips.
"I'm glad we're friends," she said. "Don't forget five o'clock."
"N-no," said Marie Cliff unsteadily.
CHAPTER XXVII
At five o'clock that afternoon Cleland, working fiercely on his manuscript toward a climax he had not planned for but which, suddenly but logically developing, threatened with disaster his leading lady and the young gentleman playing opposite, heard a step on the threshold of his open door.
"Hello, Harry!" he said with a friendly but vague wave of his pencil—for he had not stepped quite clear of the story in which he had been living among people never born—"I'd rather given you up. Come in and close the door."
"I couldn't keep away," said Belter hoarsely. He came in and closed the door. He looked even more grey and haggard than he had the night before.
"I expected you this morning," said Cleland, stepping clear of his story now, and looking very soberly at his old school-friend.