There was a long silence at the other end of the wire.
“Are you there?” he called anxiously. “Hello! Hello!”
“Yes, I'm here,” came the voice. “You rather surprised me, Mr. Mann. I have an engagement for this evening.”
“Oh, then I can't see you!”
“I have an engagement.”
He tried desperately to think up conversation; but failed.
“Well,” he said—“good-by.”
“Good-by.”
That was all. Peter ate alone, still overstrung but gloomy now, in the glittering hotel.
The dinner, however, was both well-cooked and hot. It tended to soothe and soften him. Finally, expansive again, he leaned hack, fingered his coffee cup, smoked a twenty-cent cigar and observed the life about him.