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 him; he knew that somebody was sure to bring word to Alice in the dressing room.

Alice and Dave with Myra and Lan drove together back to Williard Hall. Alice was "all right now." She had become calm, in danger neither of crying nor of giving way to insane impulse. She leaned forward as they drove, not to be nearer to Dave, who faced her on an opposite seat, but to feel the cool of the air through the open window of the door.

Nobody talked. There was not a word since Dave's inquiry about Alice, when she had come out to the cab; and that, Myra had answered.

Dave and Lan got out first when the cab halted at the south door of Willard where the watchman checked the return of the girls who had had permission away for the evening. Myra stepped down but Alice stayed in her seat; and Dave leaned in and asked: "You want to go home?"

She shook her head. Myra whispered to Lan and, when Dave stepped back, Lan offered: "I'll take you home, Alice."

She replied: "Ask him to go on a little." And Lan understood that she meant the driver and, also, that she did not want Myra and himself. So the cab proceeded a few feet to clear the entrance: Myra went into the building and Lan departed to the walk by the street. Dave followed the cab and got in and sat beside Alice. Behind them, other cabs halted, let out girls who called happy good nights and the cabs disappeared.

Alice's voice came to David from the dark. "You want to kiss me?"