He subtly became an uncle. "I'll do nothing of the sort. You ought to be ashamed of yourself--alone in the streets at this hour of the night. It must be one o'clock. I shall take you home. I suppose you have a latch-key, but for two cents I'd ring the bell and hand you over to your mother." "Mother went to Florida today and dad's duck-hunting in South Carolina. Aunt Mollie's too deaf to hear doorbells and believes anything I tell her." "I am astonished that your mother left you behind to your own devices." "I wouldn't go. She's given me up--used to my devices. Besides, I've one or two on her and she doesn't dare give me away to dad. He thinks I'm a darling spoilt child. Not that I'd mind much if he didn't, but it's more convenient." "You little wretch! I believe you've been drinking." "So I have! So I have! But I've got an asbestos lining and could stand another tall one. Ah!" Her eyes sparkled. "Suppose you take me to your rooms----" "I'll take you home----" "You'll take me to one of those all-nighters----" "I shall not." "Then ta! ta! I'll go home by myself. I've had too good a time tonight to bother with old fogies." She started up the street and Clavering hesitated but a moment. Her home was on East Sixty-fifth Street. Heaven only knew what might happen to her. Moreover, although her mother was one of those women whose insatiable demand for admiration bored him, he had no more devoted friends than her father and her grandmother. Furthermore, his curiosity was roused. What had the little devil been up to? He overtook the Oglethorpe flapper and seizing her hand drew it through his arm. "I'll take you where you can get a sandwich," he said. "But I'll not take you to a restaurant. Too likely to meet newspaper men." "Anything to drink?" "Ice cream soda." "Good Lord!" "You needn't drink it. But you'll get nothing else. Come along or I'll pick you up and carry you to the nearest garage." She trotted obediently beside him, a fragile dainty figure; carried limply, however, and little more distinguished than flappers of inferior origin. He led her to a rather luxurious delicatessen not far from his hotel, kept by enterprising Italians who never closed their doors. They seated themselves uncomfortably at the high counter, and the sleepy attendant served them with sandwiches, then retired to the back of the shop. He was settling himself to alert repose when Miss Oglethorpe suddenly changed her mind and ordered a chocolate ice cream soda. Then she ordered another, and she ate six sandwiches, a slice of cake and two bananas. "Great heaven!" exclaimed Clavering. "You must have the stomach of an ostrich." "Can eat nails and drink fire water." "Well, you won't two years hence, and you'll look it, too." "Oh, no I won't. I'll marry when I'm nineteen and a half and settle down." "I should say you were heading the other way. Where have you been tonight?"