“D’you like my name for you, Meester Deek?” There was all the passion of the south in the way she asked it. “I like it. But why don’t you call me by my own name? You speak of Horace and Tom.” “Ah, that’s different.” “How?” She shrugged her shoulders and threw back her cloak. The fragrance of her stole out towards him. “They’ll be always just Horace and Tom to me, while you--perhaps. I can’t explain, Meester Deek, if you don’t understand.” In her own peculiar way, half shy, half bold, she had told him that, just as he held her separate from all women, so she held him separate. “I’d rather have you call me Meester Deek than--than anything in the whole world, now that I know.” “And will you forgive me the big confession?” He laughed emotionally. “Anything.” She shrank back into the shadow so that her face was hidden. “I’m just as sorry as I can be. But I can’t break my word. Perhaps you’ll be so hurt that you’ll sail back to England, and won’t wait for me.” His heart sank. For a moment he had felt so sure of her. Again she was planning to elude him. “You don’t say anything, Meester Deek. I’m afraid you’re angry. It’s only for two weeks. I start to-morrow.” Two weeks without her! It spelt tragedy. He had a desperate inspiration, “Can’t I come with you?” “Poor you! No.” She shook her head slowly. “I wish you could. You see, I’ve got to do without you, too. But you don’t like her--I mean Fluffy. She’s on the road in a try-out before she opens in New York.--Only two weeks, Meester Deek! Look on the bright side of things. You can get through all your work while I’m gone and then, when I come back, we can play together.--If you stay,” she added softly. Two weeks! It seemed a very short time to make a fuss over. But in two weeks he had hoped to go so far with her. He had hoped to be able to win a promise from her, so that he could send good news to Eden Row. And now, at the end of two weeks, he would be just where he had started. “I’ll write to you, oh, such long letters.” And then, like a little child on the verge of crying: “You said you’d forgive me. You’re not keeping your promise.” At the moment of parting, as she was stepping into the elevator, he drew her back. “When d’you start? Mayn’t I come and fetch you, and see you off?” “It’ll be so early. Won’t that be a lot of trouble for a very little pleasure?” “But if I think the trouble’s worth it?” “Then I’d love to have you.” She held out her hand and let it linger in his clasp. Other revellers, returning from theatres and dinners, passed them. For the first time that day she didn’t seem to care who guessed that he loved her. “It’s too late to ask you up,” she whispered regretfully. “It’s been a nice day in spite of--of everything, Meester Deek. Thank you.” She withdrew her hand and darted from him, as if fearing that, if she stayed, she might commit herself irrevocably. He saw her gray eyes smiling pityingly down on him as the iron cage shot up.