'Cheese it!' said Cork, whom society airs oppressed. 'Your fingers are as yellow as mine.'
'Say,' said the girl, blazing upon him with low-voiced indignation, 'what do you think I am? Say, who do you think you are talking to? What?'
She was pretty to look at. Her eyes were big, brown, intrepid and bright. Uner her flat sailor hat, planted jauntily on one side, her crinkly, tawny hair parted and was drawn back. low and massy, in a thick, pendant knot behind. The roundness of girlhood still lingered in her chin and neck, but her cheeks and fingers were thinning slightly. She looked upon the world with defiance, suspicion, and sullen wonder. Her smart, short tan coat was soiled and expensive. Two inches below her black dress dropped the lowest flounce of a heliotrope silk underskirt.
'Beg your pardon,' said Cork, looking at her admiringly. 'I didn't mean anything. Sure, it's no harm to smoke, Maudy.'
'Rooney's,' said the girl, softened at once by his amends, 'is the only place I know where a lady can smoke. Maybe it ain't a nice habit, but aunty lets us at home. And my name ain't Maudy, if you please; it's Ruby Delamere.'
'That's a swell handle,' said Cork approvingly. 'Mine's McManus --Cor--er--Eddie McManus.'
'Oh, you can't help that,' laughed Ruby. 'Don't apologize.'
Cork looked seriously at the big clock on Rooney's wall. The girl's ubiquitous eyes took in the movement.
'I know it's late,' she said, reaching for her bag; 'but you know how you want a smoke when you want one. Ain't Rooney's all right? I never saw anything wrong here. This is twice I've been in. I work in a bookbindery on Third Avenue. A lot of us girls have been working overtime three nights a week. They won't let you smoke there, of course. I just dropped in here on my way home for a puff. Ain't it all right in here? If it ain't, I won't come any more.'
'It's a little bit late for you to be out alone anywhere,' said Cork. 'I'm not wise to this particular joint; but anyhow you don't want to have your picture taken in it for a present to your Sunday School teacher. Have one more beer, and then say I take you home.'
'But I don't know you,' said the girl, with fine scrupulosity. 'I don't accept the company of gentlemen I ain't acquainted with. My aunt never would allow that.'
'Why,' said Cork McManus, pulling his ear, 'I'm the latest thing in suitings with side vents and bell skirt when it comes to escortin' a lady. You bet you'll find me all right, Ruby. And I'll give you a tip as to who I am. My governor is one of the hottest cross-buns of the Wall Street push. Morgan's cab horse casts a shoe every time the old man sticks his head out the window. Me! Well, I'm in trainin' down the Street. The old man's goin' to put a seat on the Stock Exchange in my stockin' my next birthday. But it all sounds like a lemon to me. What I like is golf and yachtin' and--er--well, say a corkin' fast ten-round bout between welter-weights with walkin' gloves.'
'I guess you can walk to the door with me,' said the girl hesitatingly, but with a certain pleased flutter. 'Still I never heard anything extra good about Wall Street brokers, or sport who go to prize fights, either. Ain't you got any other recommendations?'
'I think you're the swellest looker I've had my lamps on in little old New York,' said Cork impressively.
'That'll be about enough of that, now. Ain't you the kidder!' She modified her chiding words by a deep, long, beaming, smile- embellished look at her cavalier. 'We'll drink our beer before we go, ha?'
A waiter sang. The tobacco smoke grew denser, drifting and rising in spirals, waves, tilted layers, cumulus clouds, cataracts and suspended fogs like some fifth element created from the ribs of the ancient four. Laughter and chat grew louder, stimulated by Rooney's liquids and Rooney's gallant hospitality to Lady Nicotine.
One o'clock struck. Down-stairs there was a sound of closing and locking doors. Frank pulled down the green shades of the front windows carefully. Rooney went below in the dark hall and stood at the front door, his cigarette cached in the hollow of his hand. Thenceforth whoever might seek admittance must present a countenance familiar to Rooney's hawk's eye--the countenance of a true sport.
Cork McManus and the bookbindery girl conversed absorbedly, with their elbows on the table. Their glasses of beer were pushed to one side, scarcely touched, with the foam on them sunken to a thin white scum. Since the stroke of one the stale pleasures of Rooney's had become renovated and spiced; not by any addition to the list of distractions, but because from that moment the sweets became stolen ones. The flattest glass of beer acquired the tang of illegality; the mildest claret punch struck a knockout blow at law and order; the harmless and genial company became outlaws, defying authority and rule. For after the stroke of one in such places as Rooney's, where neither bed nor board is to be had, drink may not be set before the thirsty of the city of the four million. It is the law.
'Say,' said Cork McManus, almost covering the table with his eloquent chest and elbows, 'was that dead straight about you workin' in the bookbindery and livin' at home--and just happenin' in here--and--and all that spiel you gave me?'
'Sure it was,' answered the girl with spirit. 'Why, what do you think? Do you suppose I'd lie to you? Go down to the shop and ask 'em. I handed it to you on the level.'
'On the dead level?' said Cork. 'That's the way I want it; because--'
'Because what?'
'I throw up my hands,' said Cork. 'You've got me goin'. You're the girl I've been lookin' for. Will you keep company with me, Ruby?'
'Would you like me to--Eddie?'
'Surest thing. But I wanted a straight story about--about yourself, you know. When a fellow had a girl--a steady girl--she's got to be all right, you know. She's got to be straight goods.'
'You'll find I'll be straight goods, Eddie.'
'Of course you will. I believe what you told me. But you can't blame me for wantin' to find out. You don't see many girls smokin' cigarettes in places like Rooney's after midnight that are like you.'
The girl flushed a little and lowered her eyes. 'I see that now,' she said meekly. 'I didn't know how bad it
