potatoes, and my nails is full of strawberry juice, and I hope it
won't come off for a week. And I want to thank you both. I'd like to
stay, but I'm going to hump over to the theater. That Dacre's got the
nerve to swipe the star's dressing-room if I don't get my trunks in
first."

They walked with her to the front porch, making talk as they went.
Resentment and discomfiture and a sort of admiration all played across
the faces of the two women, whose kindness had met with rebuff. At the
foot of the steps Blanche LeHaye, prima donna of the Sam Levin
Crackerjack Belles turned.

"Oh, say," she called. "I almost forgot. I want to tell you that if
you wait until your caramel is off the stove, and then add your
butter, when the stuff's hot, but not boilin', it won't lump so. H'm?
Don't mention it."




VI

SIMPLY SKIRTS


They may differ on the subjects of cigars, samples, hotels, ball teams
and pinochle hands, but two things there are upon which they stand
united. Every member of that fraternity which is condemned to a hotel
bedroom, or a sleeper berth by night, and chained to a sample case by
day agrees in this, first: That it isn't what it used to be. Second: