Beat it, kiddo--being slow won't help you none with Rumley, and she's got the axe, remember." Thus adjured, Miss Rose beat it, arriving rather breathlessly at her chair, which was occupied by a rather sprightly looking woman with pretty hands and a square jaw and hair just beginning to gray over the temples.

She had her hat off and was regarding herself seriously in the mirror, wondering whether she should touch up the gray, as some of her intimate friends advised, or let it alone as her brother Fred insisted.
Miss Rose was too busy counting customers to notice who was in her chair until she had come close.
"Why, hello, Kate," she said then.

"I was just wondering what had become of you." "Oh, I've been so busy, Marion.

I just had to _steal_ the time today to come.

You weren't out to my reading last night, and I was afraid you might not be well.