"
Barney had a drink of the real stuff, and then another drink, in the
measuring of neither of which had an eye-dropper been involved.
After that, much heartened, he put two dollars upon the bar and went
his way. His course took the dapper Barney into three of the gayest
restaurants in the Times Square section; and in these Barney paused
long enough to speak to a few after-theater supper-parties. For this
was the hour when Barney paid his social calls; he was very strict
with himself upon this point. Barney was really by way of being a
rising figure in this particular circle of New York society composed
of people who had or believed they had an interest in the theater, of
expensively gowned women the foreground of whose lives was most
attractive, but whose background was perhaps wisely kept out of the
picture, and of moneyed young men who gloried in the idea that they
were living the life. These social calls from gay table to gay table,
at all of which Barney was welcome--for here Barney showed only his
most attractive surfaces, his most brilliant facets--were in truth a
very important part of Barney's business.
A little later, alone at a corner table in a quieter restaurant,
Barney was eating his supper and making an inventory of his prospects.
He was in a very exultant mood.
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