Finding Aggie
in the path of his wild jubilee, he treated that bewildered young
matron to an unwelcome kiss. A proceeding which Jimmy did not at
all approve.
Hardly had Aggie recovered from her surprise when the disgruntled
Jimmy was startled out of his dark mood by the supreme insult of
a loud resounding kiss implanted on his own cheek by his
excitable young friend. Jimmy raised his arm to resist a second
assault, and Alfred veered off in the direction of the officer,
who stepped aside just in time to avoid similar demonstration
from the indiscriminating young father.
Finding a wide circle prescribed about himself and the babies,
Alfred suddenly stopped and gazed about from one astonished face
to the other.
"Well," said the officer, regarding Alfred with an injured air,
and feeling much downcast at being so ignominiously deprived of
his short-lived heroism in capturing a supposed criminal, "if
this is all a joke, I'll let the woman go."
"The woman," repeated Alfred; "what woman?"
"I nabbed a woman at the foot of the fire-escape," explained the
officer. Zoie and Aggie glanced at each other inquiringly. "I
thought she might be an accomplice."
"What does she look like, officer?" asked Alfred. His manner was
becoming more paternal, not to say condescending, with the
arrival of each new infant.
"Don't be silly, Alfred," snapped Zoie, really ashamed that
Alfred was making such an idiot of himself.
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