"I haven’t done it for nothing. If you want to recompense me, you can quite easily. I should be honored if you will lunch with me. Will you?" "But," she hesitated, "I don’t go out to lunch with anybody—ever." "That’s why I said I should be honored if you would. Come, we’re quite friends. I’ve seen you four times for ten minutes!" She wanted to accept. After all, as she had expressed it to Maggy when Woolf had asked her out, there was no harm in lunching with a man. She was reminded of that opinion, now that it applied to herself. She wanted to accept Meer’s invitation, but was held back by a suspicion of what these lunches, suppers and dinners were meant to lead to. Men seemed to think that a girl on the stage could be bought for the price of a dinner! And then, in her indecision, she looked at Meer, saw the friendly eagerness in his face, and let reason give way to inclination. "I don’t want to refuse," she said. Five minutes later they were on their way to the Carlton. Meer would have preferred enjoying her society in a less popular place, but there was a matinée that day and the Pall Mall was so close to the great restaurant. When Alexandra knew where they were bound for diffidence seized on her. Maggy might be there. If she were, and saw her with a man, what would she think? Alexandra felt that there could be no two answers to that question. She entered the big, rose-colored room in fear and trembling. Maggy, however, was not lunching at the Carlton that day. But Lander, the composer of Alexandra’s new song, saw her and carried the news to De Freyne. "Who do you think was lunching with Bernard Meer at the Carlton to-day?" he began. "No woman," answered De Freyne. "He hates ’em. Thinks they’ve got fluff in their heads instead of brains, and that’s why they’re so light-headed. Told me so himself." "It was a woman for all that. Nobody less than little Hersey! And, by Jove, it was quite fascinating to watch her. At first she hardly spoke a word; but before long she might have been alone with him in the restaurant. She seemed to have clean forgotten everybody else in the place. And he was just as taken up with her. They couldn’t take their eyes off one another. Wonder what it means?" "Oh, nothing. You’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick, my dear chap. Why, she only met the fellow a fortnight ago. I sent her to him. Meer wouldn’t look at one of my lot, except professionally." However, when he saw Alexandra that evening he chaffed her.