"When you've got ten thousand a year, you don't have to have any particular girl in view. You've got to keep out of view, or some flapper 'll land you."
The señora shook her head.
"I don't understand it, Tomas," she said gently. "It seems to me you deserve something finer than what you say. It's so ... like a machine." She flushed faintly, and arose, saying that she must make the sick man some broth.
"You'll be back soon, señora?" he asked anxiously.
She smiled at him, picked up a salver from a table, and went out.
With the departure of the señora, the sense of pleasure which had enveloped Strawbridge also vanished. It gave him the same feeling of loss that he experienced at times when he stepped out of the glow and romance of a theater, into a dull, prosaic street. Still, after all, it was in dull, prosaic streets that money was made and ambitious young fellows gained headway. A query trickled into the drummer's mind. He wondered if it would be possible, if it were in the scope of things to take some of the glow and romance of the theater out into life, to keep it there, always to have this dear warmth in his heart ... if the señora.... A quiver went through the drummer at the direction in which his musing had led him. He came to a sudden stop, deserted the theater which his fancy had built, and walked slowly out into the prosaic street once more.
When his door opened again, Strawbridge saw, to his disgust, that it was the griffe girl who had brought him his broth. The girl had had a serious part in nursing Strawbridge over his wound and the solar fever which exposure in the campaign had caused. This had bred in her considerable authority. So now, as she entered, she narrowed her black eyes, nodded firmly at her patient, and said, "You are to drink this, señor."
The salesman was outraged that the maid should have come instead of the mistress. He turned on his side away from her.
"Don't want any."
"But the señora said you were to drink it."