A ROMANCE OF BILLY-GOAT HILL



and bell boys, the obsequious clerk at the desk, the
semicircle of admirers at the fire, and came to an
audacious pause when it reached Donald Morley.
  He was lighting a cigarette at the moment, and
presented an appearance of colossal indifference to
all stars, terrestrial and celestial. But when he had
tossed the match into the open grate, he nonchalantly
sauntered to the desk and glanced at the register.
  There was the dashing signature, the ink still wet
on the flourish,
                  " La Florine."

  It was Cropsie Decker's old flame, " The Serpent
of the Nile," whom he had last seen poised on the
cork of a champagne bottle on a poster on Billy-
goat Hill! Without looking up he was aware that
the same mischievous eyes which had peeped through
the black-gloved fingers on the poster, were watch-
ing him now with the liveliest interest. They fol-
lowed him across the room, they laughed at him
over the shoulder of the man in the checked suit,
they flung a challenge at his feet, and dared him
pick it up.
  Donald watched her with increasing fascination.
It was good just to be near anything so careless, and
gay, and irresponsible. He, too, had once poised
tiptoe on the perilous edge of things, and laughed
defiance in the face of Fate. Why should n't he
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