"Aw, Jimmie, I don't want nothing. I 'ain't got no right to take nothing
from you!" She played with the rich, unpronounceable foods on her plate
and took a swallow of golden liquid to wash down her fiery confusion.
"I--'ain't got no right."
"When I get to likin' a little girl there ain't nothing she 'ain't got a
right to."
"Aw, Jimmie, when you talk like that I feel so--so--"
"So what, Doll?"
"So--so--"
"Gowann, Doll."
"Aw, I can't say it. You'll think I'm fresh."
But she regarded him with the nervous eyes of a gazelle and the red swam
high up into her hair, and he drained his glass down to the bottom of
its hollow stem and leaned his warming face closer.
"You treat me white, sweetness, and understand me right, and you won't
be sorry for nothing you say. Drink, Doll, drink to you 'n' me--you 'n'
me."
Their bubble-thin glasses met in a tink and a pledge and her ready
laughter rose in duet with his. She caught the lilt of a popular song
from, the tenpiece orchestra and sang upward with the tirralirra of
a lark, and the group at the adjoining table threw her a shout. Mr.
Fitzgibbons beat a knife-and-fork tattoo on his plate and pinched her
cheek lightly, gritting his teeth in a fine frenzy of delight.
"That's the way to make 'em sit up and take notice, Doll, that's the way
I like 'em. Live! As live and frisky as colts!"
An attendant placed a souvenir of the occasion beside her plate--a white
wool bear, upright and with bold bead eyes and a flare of pink bow
beneath its chin.
"Oh-h-h!"
"See, Doll, a Teddy bear! By Gad! a Teddy bear with his arms stretched
out to hug her! Gad! if I was that Teddy I'd hug the daylight out of
her, too! Gad! wouldn't I!"
Mrs. Violet Smith wafted the bead-eyed toy a kiss, then slapped him
sharply sidewise, toppling him in a heap, and her easy laughter mingled
with her petulance.
"I wanna big grizzly, Jimmie; a great big brown grizzly bear with a
grin. I wanna big brown grizzly."
"'Ain't you got one, Doll? A little white one with a pink bow. Here,
let's give him a drink!"
But the petulance grew upon her, nor would she be gainsaid. "I wanna big
brown grizzly--a great big brown one with a grin."
"Aw, Doll, look at this little white one--a classy little white one.
Look at his nose, cutie, made out of a button. Look, ain't that some
nose! Look, ain't--"
"A big brown one that I can dance with, Jimmie. I wanna dance. Gee! who
could dance with a little dinky devil like that! I wanna dance, Jimmie,
honest I could dance with a great big brown one if he was big enough.
I--Gee, I wanna dance. Jimmie, honest, I could dance with a great big
brown one if he was big enough. I--Gee! I wanna dance, Jimmie! Gee, I
wanna--"
He whacked the table and flashed the twinkle of a wink to the waiter.
"Gad! Doll, if you look at me with them frisky eyes I--"
"I wanna bear, Jimmie, a great big brown--"
"Waiter!"
"A great big brown one, Jimmie, with a grin. Tell him a great big brown
one!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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