young man like you—of course, you miss the society of the ladies. Wouldn’t you like a nice young lady to take out to dinner this evening? Miss Asher, now, is a very nice young lady; she will make it agreeable for you.”
“Why, she doesn’t know me,” said Platt, wonderingly. “She doesn’t know anything about me. Would she go? I’m not acquainted with her.”
“Would she go?” repeated Zizzbaum, with uplifted eyebrows. ‘‘Sure, she would go. I will introduce you. Sure, she would go.”
He called Miss Asher loudly.
She came, calm and slightly contemptuous, in her white shirt waist and plain black skirt.
“Mr. Platt would like the pleasure of your company to dinner this evening,” said Zizzbaum, walking away.
‘‘Sure,” said Miss Asher, looking at the ceiling. “I’d be much pleased. Nine-eleven West Twentieth street. What time?”
‘‘Say seven o’clock.”
“All right, but please don’t come ahead of time. I room with a school teacher, and she doesn’t allow any gentlemen to call in the room. There isn’t any parlor, so you’ll have to wait in the hall. I’ll be ready.”
At half past seven Platt and Miss Asher sat at a table in a Broadway restaurant. She was dressed
[75]
