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Show 387 I'll try her later." "You want me to have her call you?" "Actually I'm going to be away from the phone for a while. I'll just try her later." He was about to hang up and creep away when he suddenly had a thought. "I'm calling from the university," he said. "She isn't up here by any chance, is she?" "She's supposed to be. You tried her lab?" His heart pounded at this rush of information. "I couldn't get an answer," he said. "Maybe I misdialed." He picked up a gum wrapper from the floor of the booth and rattled it next to the mouthpiece. "Let's see. Is her number-wait a minute, I can't read my own writing any more, ha ha." Floyd gave him a number. He sounded bored. Lorin asked him to repeat it while he frantically scrawled it on the wall of the phone booth. "That's what I thought I called, all right. Well, I'll just try again, ha ha. Thanks very much." "She was probably down the hall in the John." "I never thought of that. Maybe I'd better give her a few minutes." He hung up quickly. He had been afraid he was going to giggle insanely and give himself away. After copying the number from the wall of the booth onto the back of the creased and worn parking ticket he still carried in his wallet he dialed it and waited for whatever would come. A male voice answered. He was always getting those. "Is Gloriana there?" he asked politely. "Just a minute." He heard the white noise over the receiver turn pinkish brown and a muffled voice said, "Anybody seen what's her name?" Lorin imagined a large barnlike laboratory with dirty sinks smelling of |
