signaled for the elevator and it almost immediately sank into view.
"Hurry," he said harshly to the colored operator in a green uniform;
and quite suddenly, leaving a sense of profound mystery, he disappeared.




III


Linda decided that he had told her a rather stupid fairy story. She
was too old for such ridiculous things as ladies in their shining
hair on a leopard. She remembered clearly seeing one of the latter
at a zoological garden. It had yellow eyes, but no one would care to
ride on it. Her mother, she was certain, knew more about love than
any man. His words faded quickly from her memory, but a confused
rich sense stirred her heart, a feeling such as she experienced
after an unusually happy day: white gloves and music and Mr. Jasper
displeased.

A clock chimed ten, and she proceeded to her mother's room, where
she must wait up with her information about Mr. Jasper's wife. She
was furious at him for a carelessness that had brought her mother
such unfavorable criticism. Everything had been put away before
going down, and there was nothing for her to do. The time dragged
tediously. The hands of the traveling-clock in purple leather on the
dressing-table moved deliberately around to eleven. A ringing of ice
in one of the metal pitchers carried by the bell boys sounded from
the corridor. There was the faint wail of a baby.