"Got to heat it is good, Doll! All I got to do is ask once, and my
word's law round here. Here, take a swallow and warm up, hon. You don't
need to go home if you warm up right."
But the glass tinked against her teeth.
"I--I can't'"
"Gowann, kiddo!"
"I'll take some home with me to warm me up when I get in bed, Jimmie.
I--Not that kind, give it to me red like you did last Tuesday night,
without the sparkles. That's the kind to warm me up. Order a bottle of
red without the sparkles, Jimmie--without the sparkles. I--I can't stand
no more bubbles to-night."
He helped her into her coat, and she leaned to him with a little
movement of exhaustion that tightened his hold of her.
"Hurry a cab, waiter; the lady's sick!"
"Ain't I a nut, though!"
"Poor wet little Doll, I didn't think you was much more'n damp! You
gotta make up for this to-morrow night, Doll. Eight sharp, Doll, and no
funny business to-morrow night."
"Eight sharp!"
"Swell little sport you are, gettin' the chills! But we understand each
other, don't we, Doll?"
"Sure, Jimmie!"
"Come on, hon. Shakin' like a leaf, ain't you? Wait till I get you out
in the cab, I'll warm you up. You look just like a Christmas doll, all
rigged up in that hat and that star and all--just like a Christmas
doll."
"My grizzly, my brown grizzly! Gee, I nearly forgot my grizzly!"
And she packed the huge toy under her arm, along with the iridescent
ball and the gewgaws of her plunder, and out into the cab, where an
attendant tucked a bottle of the red warming wine between them.
"Ready, Doll?"
"Ready."
The silent storm had continued its silent work, weaving its blanket
softer, deeper. The straggling pedestrians of early morning bent their
heads into it and drove first paths through the immaculate mantle.
The fronts of owl cars and cabs were coated with a sugary white rime.
Broadway lay in a white lethargy that is her nearest approach to sleep.
Snow-plows were already abroad clearing tracks, dry snow-dust spinning
from under them. At Longacre Square the flakes blew upward in spiral
flurries, erratic, full of antics. The cab snorted, plunged, leaped
forward. Mr. Fitzgibbons inclined toward the little huddle beside him.
"Sweetness, now I got you! You little sweetness you, now I got you,
sweetness!"
"Jimmie! Quit! Quit! You--you old--you--you--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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