He unfolded his programme, and went on speaking in a low tone while he
affected to study it. "Anything to oblige, of course. That's always been
my motto. But is it a bargain--fair and square? You'll see me?"

She receded farther from him. "I promise. I--I WANT to," she faltered.

"All right, then. Call me up in the morning at the Driscoll Building.
Seven-o-nine--got it?"

She nodded, and he added in a still lower tone: "I suppose I can
congratulate you, anyhow?" and then, without waiting for her reply,
turned to study Mrs. Van Degen's box through his opera-glass. Clare, as
if aware of the scrutiny fixed on her from below leaned back and threw a
question over her shoulder to Ralph Marvell, who had just seated himself
behind her.

"Who's the funny man with the red face talking to Miss Spragg?"

Ralph bent forward. "The man next to her? Never saw him before. But I
think you're mistaken: she's not speaking to him."

"She WAS--Wasn't she, Harriet?"

Miss Ray pinched her lips together without speaking, and Mrs. Van Degen
paused for the fraction of a second. "Perhaps he's an Apex friend," she
then suggested.

"Very likely. Only I think she'd have introduced him if he had been."