"Then let's stick around outside in the corridor here," says I, "until we frame up something. Now how would it do if----" "You're to explain, that's all!" says he, steppin' up and pushin' the button. It's a wonder too, from the panicky way he's actin', he don't shove me ahead of him for a buffer as we goes in. But he has just enough courage left to let me trail along behind. So it's him gets the cordial greetin' from the vision in blue net that floats out easy and graceful from the window nook. I couldn't see why it wa'n't goin' to be just as awkward for her, meetin' him again so long after their grand smash, or whatever it was; but, take it from me, there ain't any fussed motions about Miss Hampton at all. Them big china blue eyes of hers is steady and calm, her perky chin is carried well up, and in one corner of her mouth she's displayin' that quirky smile he'd described to me. "Ah, Robert!" says she. "So good of you to----" Then she discovers me and breaks off sudden. I'm introduced reg'lar and formal, and Mr. Robert adds: "A young friend of mine from the office." "Oh!" says Miss Hampton, liftin' her eyebrows a little. "I brought him along," blurts out Mr. Robert, "to tell you about how you happened to get the roses." "Really!" says she. "How considerate of you!" And if Mr. Robert hadn't been actin' so much like a poor prune he'd have quit that line right there. But on he blunders. "You see," says he, "I've asked Torchy to explain for me." "Ye-e-es?" says she, bitin' her upper lip thoughtful and glancin' from one to the other of us. "Then--then you needn't have bothered to come yourself, need you?" Say, that was something to lean against, wa'n't it? You could almost hear the dull thud as it reached him. "Oh, I say, Elsa!" he gets out gaspy. "Of course I--I wished to come, too." "Thank you," says she. "I wasn't sure. And now that you've brought him, may I hear what your young friend has to say, all by myself?" She even springs another one of them twisty smiles; but her head nods suggestive at the door. I expects I starts a grin; but one glimpse of Mr. Robert's face and it fades out. He wa'n't happy a bit. For a minute he stands there lookin' sort of dazed, as if he'd been hit with a lead pipe, and with his neck and ears tinted up like a raspb'rry sundae. "Very well," says he, and does a slow exit, leavin' me gawpin' after him sympathetic. Not for long, though. My turn came as soon as the latch was clicked. "Now, Torchy," says she, chummy and encouragin', as she slips into an old-rose armchair and waves me towards another. I'm still gazin' at the door, wonderin' if Mr. Robert has jumped down the elevator shaft or is takin' it out on the lever juggler. "Ah, say, Miss Hampton!" says I. "Why throw the harpoon so hasty when he was doin' his best?" "Was he?" says she. "Then his best isn't very wonderful, is it?"