"You'll have a time finding your hat and coat," smiled the girl.
"I? Not I. With marvellous sagacity, I left 'em with a waiter
downstairs. But you?"
"I'm afraid I must keep you waiting. No matter if it is four in the
morning--and later--women do take a time to wrap up. You won't mind?"
"Not in the least--it prolongs my Day of Days!" he laughed.
"I shall look for you in the lobby," she replied, smiling; and slipped
away through the throng.
Picking his way to the elevators, constantly squirming more
inextricably into the heart of the press, elbowed and shouldered and
politely walked upon, not only fore and aft, but to port and starboard
as well, by dame, dowager, and debutante, husband, lover, and esquire,
patricians, celebrities and the commonalty (a trace, as the chemists
say), P. Sybarite at length found himself only a layer or two removed
from the elevator gates.
And one of these presently opening, he stumbled in with the crush, to
hold his breath in vain effort to make himself smaller, gaze in
cross-eyed embarrassment at the abundant and nobly undisguised back of
the lady of distinction in front of him, and stand on tiptoes to spare
those of the man behind him; while the cage descended with maddening
deliberation.
If he had but guessed the identity of the man in the rear, the chances
are he would have (thoughtlessly of course) brought down his heels
upon the other's toes with all his weight on top of them.
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