"Well," smiled Clyde, who could see that she was yielding in part. "We could just walk out near the end of some street here—that street you live in, if you wish. There are no houses out there. Or there's a little park—Mohawk—just west of Dreamland on the Mohawk Street line. It's right on the river. You might come out there. I could meet you where the car stops. Will you do that?"
"Oh, I'd be afraid to do that I think—go so far, I mean. I never did anything like that before." She looked so innocent and frank as she said this that Clyde was quite carried away by the sweetness of her. And to think he was making a clandestine appointment with her. "I'm almost afraid to go anywhere here alone, you know. People talk so here, they say, and some one would be sure to see me. But——"
"Yes, but what?"
"I'm afraid I'm staying too long at your desk here, don't you think?" She actually gasped as she said it. And Clyde realizing the openness of it, although there was really nothing very unusual about it, now spoke quickly and forcefully.
"Well, then, how about the end of that street you live in? Couldn't you come down there for just a little while to-night—a half hour or so, maybe?"
"Oh, I couldn't make it to-night, I think—not so soon. I'll have to see first, you know. Arrange, that is. But another day." She was so excited and troubled by this great adventure of hers that her face, like Clyde's at times, changed from a half smile to a half frown without her realizing that it was registering these changes.
"Well, then, how about Wednesday night at eight-thirty or nine? Couldn't you do that? Please, now."
Roberta considered most sweetly, nervously. Clyde was enormously fascinated by her manner at the moment, for she looked around, conscious, or so she seemed, that she was being observed and that her stay here for a first visit was very long.
"I suppose I'd better be going back to my work now," she replied without really answering him.
"Wait a minute," pled Clyde. "We haven't fixed on the time for Wednesday. Aren't you going to meet me? Make it nine or eight-thirty, or any time you want to. I'll be there waiting for you after eight if you wish. Will you?"