"We'll go into a drug-store, or,
better still, let's go to an ice-cream parlor."
This I hesitated to do because of my shabby clothes. When he
divined the cause of my embarrassment he was touched
"Come on!' he said, with warm hospitality, uttering the two words
in English. "When I say 'Come on' I know what I am talking
about."
"But your lady is waiting for you." "She can wait. Ladies are never
on time, anyhow."
"But maybe she is."
"If she is she can dance with some of the other fellows. I wouldn't
be jealous. There are plenty of other ladies. I should not take fifty
ladies for this chance of seeing you. Honest."
He took me into a little candy-store, dazzlingly lighted and
mirrored and filled with marble-topped tables
We seated ourselves and he gave the order. He did so ra.ther
swaggeringly, but his manner to me was one of affectionate and
compassionate respectfulness
"Oh, I am so glad to see you," he said. "You remember the ship?"
"As if one could ever forget things of that kind."
"I have often thought of you.
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