There was a girl standing up to sing as they sat down and the whole air of the place was beyond even the retailed splendour of J.Wilkinson.The girl threw back her wraps and began to order freely.

Peter, who had a glimpse of the card, stiffened.
"I--I guess I'm not so very hungry," he cautioned.

She looked up from the menu sharply and her face softened; she made one or two deft changes in it.
"This is Dutch, you know," she threw out.

"Oh, I know you invited me, but you didn't think I was one of the kind that let a strange gentleman pay for my dinner, did you ?" Peter denied it, stricken with embarrassment.

She seemed in the light, to take him in more completely.
"Say, would you have licked that fellow the other night, honest ?" "Well, if he was disrespectful to a lady----" Peter began.
"Oh, _excuse_ me!" She turned her head aside for a moment in her long gloves.