"
"Come with us. Dare you."
"Zoe!"
"Where?"
"I'm singing this afternoon for Auchinloss. My audition at the Opera
House."
"The deuce you say!"
"I've a cab waiting," she said, challenging him with a flash of eyes to
their corners.
"Wait," he said, darting into his office.
"Zoe, how dared you?"
"Lilly--he's thrilling! I want him along; I feel keyed up now. The way I
want to feel! Edgy!"
Before her persistently cold lips would reply he rejoined them and
presently they were all three in the cab.
His contemplation of Zoe became a stare.
"So the little Zoe grew up."
"I'm eighteen. You used to be old enough to be my father. Not any more.
Now you are old enough to be my--anything."
"Zoe!"
"Good Lord!" he said. "Fact."
Suddenly her nervousness came flowing back over her.
"Lilly, look at me every second while I'm singing, darling. You too,"
leaning toward him and placing cold fingers on each of their wrists.
"Delightful and easy task."
She made him a _moue_, prettily pouty.
"You'll be sorry, when I'm famous, that you didn't take me seriously."
"How can I take you at all when you've taken me off my feet?"
"You've never heard me sing, have you?"
"No.
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