strainedly without speaking in the dingydark hall. A smell of coffee and singeing toast seeped in from somewhere. Ruth came up behind them.
"All right Jimmy I'm ready. . . . I wonder if I've forgotten anything."
"I dont care whether you have or not, I'm starving." Jimmy took hold of her shoulders and pushed her gently towards the door. "It's two o'clock."
"Well goodby Cassie dear, I'll call you up at about six."
"All wight Wuthy . . . So pleased to have met you Mr. Herf." The door closed on Cassie's tittering lisp.
"Wow, Ruth that place gives me the infernal jimjams.'
"Now Jimmy dont get peevish because you need food."
"But tell me Ruth, what the hell is Mr. Oglethorpe? He beats anything I ever saw."
"Oh did the Ogle come out of his lair?" Ruth let out a whoop of laughter. They came out into grimy sunlight. "Did he tell you he was of the main brawnch, dontcher know, of the Oglethorpes of Georgiah?"
"Is that lovely girl with copper hair his wife?"
"Elaine Oglethorpe has reddish hair. She's not so darn lovely either. . . . She's just a kid and she's upstage as the deuce already. All because she made a kind of a hit in Peach Blossoms. You know one of these tiny exquisite bits everybody makes such a fuss over. She can act all right."
"It's a shame she's got that for a husband."
"Ogile's done everything in the world for her. If it hadnt been for him she'd still be in the chorus . . ."
"Beauty and the beast."
"You'd better look out if he sets his lamps on you Jimmy.'
"Why?"
"Strange fish, Jimmy, strange fish."
An Elevated train shattered the barred sunlight overhead. He could see Ruth's mouth forming words.
"Look," he shouted above the diminishing clatter. "Let's go have brunch at the Campus and then go for a walk on the Palisades."
