Nelly on this floor! Near him! Now! He had to have this room. He forced himself to speak directly.
“I know how you mean, Mrs. Ferrard. No, I don’t drink much of any—hardly at all; just a glass of beer now and then; sometimes I don’t even touch that a week at a time. And I don’t gamble and—and I do try to keep—er—straight—and all that sort of thing.”
“I work for the Souvenir and Art Novelty Company on Twenty-eighth Street. If you want to call them up I guess the manager’ll give me a pretty good recommend.”
“I don’t believe I’ll need it, Mr. Wrenn. It’s my business to find out what sort of animiles men are by just talking to them.” She rose, smiled, plumped out her hand. “You _will_ be nice to Nelly, _won’t_ you! I’m going to fire that Teddem out—don’t tell him, but I am—because he gets too fresh with her.”
She suddenly broke into laughter, and ejaculated: “_Say_, that was hard work! Don’t you _hate_ to have to be serious? Let’s trot down, and I’ll make Tom or Duncan rush us a growler of beer to welcome you to our midst…. I’ll bet your socks aren’t darned properly. I’m going to sneak in and take a look at them, once I get you caged up here…. But I won’t read your love-letters! Now let’s go down by the fire, where it’s comfy.”
CHAPTER XV HE STUDIES FIVE HUNDRED, SAVOUIR FAIRE, AND LOTSA-SNAP OFFICE MOTTOES
On a couch of glossy red leather with glossy black buttons and stiff fringes also of glossy red leather, Mr. William Wrenn sat upright and was very confiding to Miss Nelly Croubel, who was curled among the satin pillows with her skirts drawn carefully about her ankles. He had been at Mrs. Arty’s for two weeks now. He wore a new light-blue tie, and his trousers were pressed like sheet steel.
“Yes, I suppose you’re engaged to some one, Miss Nelly, and you’ll go off and leave us—go off to that blamed Upton’s Grove or some place.”
“I am _not_ engaged. I’ve told you so. Who would want to marry me? You stop teasing me—you’re mean as can be; I’ll just have to get Tom to protect me!”
“Ain’t. Who would want to marry poor little me?”
“You _stop_ teasing me…. Besides, probably you’re in love with twenty girls.”
“I am _not_. Why, I’ve never hardly known but just two girls in my life. One was just a girl I went to theaters with once or twice—she was the daughter of the landlady I used to have before I came here.”