Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/288

 to the stairway that led above. Then she fell to wondering what the meaning of Kestner's sudden call would be.

She was still pondering this when the man with the proprietary air stepped back to her table side. He moved with more haste than before. But his aspect was one of bored preoccupation.

"Mr. Wilsnach is waiting for you outside," he explained. He even languidly and impersonally assisted her in gathering up her belongings.

"Why didn't Mr. Wilsnach come for me?" she demanded. If a party took you out to dinner, she had been taught, it was a party's job to see that you didn't have to cruise out of a slum-joint without an escort.

"He said he had to find a taxicab. I guess maybe he's in a hurry."

Of course he would be in a hurry, Sadie remembered, with a call like that from Kestner. And nothing could shake her faith in the rock of Wilsnach's gentility. So she quickened her steps and caught up her skirts as she mounted to the sidewalk. There, to her relief, she caught sight of the waiting taxicab.

She could even see Wilsnach's hand swing the