But where had he kept himself so long?
That was the way he threw off on her; ah, yes, he was going with Miss Ravis now and wouldn't look at any one else.
Vandover protested against this, and Ida Wade went on to ask him why he couldn't come up to call on her that very night, adding: "We might go to the Tivoli or somewhere." All at once she interrupted herself, laughing, "Oh, I heard all about you the other night.
_'Cherries are ripe_!' You and the boys painted the town red, didn't you?
Ah, Van, I'm right on to _you_!" She would not tell him how she heard, but took herself off, laughing and reminding him to come up early.
Ida Wade belonged to a certain type of young girl that was very common in the city.

She was what men, among each other, called "gay," though that was the worst that could be said of her.

She was virtuous, but the very fact that it was necessary to say so was enough to cause the statement to be doubted.

When she was younger and had been a pupil at the Girls' High School, she had known and had even been the companion of such girls as Turner Ravis and Henrietta Vance, but since that time girls of that class had ignored her.

Now, almost all of her acquaintances were men, and to half of these she had never been introduced.