"Honest, Jimmie, I didn't try to dodge you. I--I only thought, with the girls here gabbling so much about last Tuesday night and all, it wouldn't look right. And he had a spell last night again, and the doctor said we--we ought to get him South before the first snow--South, where the sun shines. But he's got as much chance of gettin' South as I have of climbing the South Pole!" "A pretty little thing like you climbing the South Pole! I'd be there with field-glasses all-righty!" "I--I went up and talked and begged and begged and talked to old Ingram up at the Aid Society to-day, but the old skinflint says they can't do nothing for an employee after he's been out of his department more'n eight weeks, and--and Harry's been out twelve. He says the Society can't do nothing no more, much less send him South. Just like a machine he talked. I could have killed him!" "Poor little filly! I was that surprised when I seen you was back in the store again! There ain't been a classy queen behind the counter since you left." "Aw, Jimmie, no wonder the girls say you got your race-horses beat for speed." "That's me!" Aisles thinned and the store relaxed into a bacchanalian chaos of trampled débris, merchandise strewn as if a flock of vultures had left their pickings--a battlefield strewn with gewgaws and the tinsel of Christmastide, and reeking with foolish sweat. "Button up there, Doll, and come on; it's a swell night for Eskimos." Mr. Fitzgibbons folded over his own double-breasted coat, fitted his flat-brimmed derby hat on his well-oiled hair, drew a pair of gray suede gloves over his fingers, and hooked his slender cane to his arm. "Ready, Doll?" "The girls, Jimmie--look at 'em rubbering and gabbling like ducks! It--it ain't like I could do any good at home, it ain't." "I'd be the first to ship you there if you could. You know me, Doll!" His words deadened her doubts like a soporific. She glanced about for the moment at the Dionysian spectacle of the Mammoth Store ravished to chaos by the holiday delirium; at the weary stream of shoppers and workers bending into the storm as they reached the doors; at the swift cancan of snowflakes dancing whitely and swiftly without; at Mr. Jimmie Fitzgibbons standing attendant. Then she smiled. "Come on, Jimmie!" "Come on yourself, Doll!" Snow beat in their faces like shot as they emerged into the merry night. She shivered in her thin coat. "Gee! ain't it cold!" "Not so you can notice it. Watch me, Doll!" He hailed a passing cab with a double flourish of cane and half lifted her in, his fingers closing tight over her arm. "Little Doll, now I got you! And we understand one another, don't we, Doll?" "Yes, Jimmie." She leaned back, quiescent, nor did his hold of her relax. A fairy etching of snow whitened the windows and wind-shield, and behind their security he leaned closer until she could feel the breath of his smile.