"But I promised to."

"Promises, promises, oh dear!" laughed Ida. "Sally, here's an orange
for you."

"You _are_ a duck!" was the girl's reply, as she caught it, and,
with a nod to Waymark, left the room.

"And so you've really come," Ida went on, sitting down and beginning
to draw off her gloves.

"You find it surprising? To begin with, I have come to pay my
debts."

"Is there another cup of coffee?" she asked, seeming not to have
heard. "I'm too tired to get up and see."

Waymark felt a keen delight in waiting upon her, in judging to a
nicety the true amount of sugar and cream, in drawing the little
table just within her reach.

"Mr. Waymark," she exclaimed, all at once, "if you had had supper
with a friend, and your friend had paid the bill, should you take
out your purse and pay him back at your next meeting?"

"It would depend entirely on circumstances."

"Just so. Then the present circumstances don't permit anything of
the kind, and there's an end of _that_ matter. Light another cigar,
will you?"