I stopped. She got up and came to fasten my sash for me.
"I thought mebbe you couldn't," she said; "but it was worth trying."
"Have it next week," I said. "Have the meeting then."
But they had postponed once—some one, Rose said, had "peached" to the forewoman. For to-morrow night the men had loaned them a hall. She bent to my sash. I could see her in my glass. I was ashamed.
She told me what had come to the girls—marriage, promotion, disgrace. Two of them had disappeared.
"I'm so sorry," I kept on saying. Then the maid came to tell me the motor was there. I put on my cloak with the fur and the bright lining. It had made me feel magnificent and happy. With Rose there, I felt all different.
She slipped away and went out in the dark. The light was on in the limousine. Mr. Gerald came running up the steps for me. Antoinette was there already. I went down and got in. There was nothing else to do.
The drive curved back around the dormitory, and so to the street again. As we came out on the roadway, we passed Rose, walking.
I thought: "She's walking till the street-car comes." But I knew it was far more likely that she was walking all the way to her room.
At the Dudleys' studio I forgot Rose for a little while. It was a great dark room with bright colors and dim lamps. Mrs. Dudley had on a dress of leopard skins, with a pointed crown on her head. There were twenty or more there, and among them "Baddy" Dudley. From the minute I came in the room he came and sat beside me. He was big and ugly, but there was something about him that made you forget all the other men in the room.