The glasses were filled and raised. "Ho!" said Conward.
"Here's looking!" said one of the girls. Dave still hesitated, but the
other girl clinked her glass against his. "Here's looking at you," she
said, and she appeared to lay special emphasis on the last two words.
Certainly her eyes were on Dave's as she raised her glass to her lips.
And under the spell of those eyes he raised his glass and drained it.
Other glasses were filled and drained. The three were chattering away,
but Dave was but vaguely conscious of their talk, and could weave no
connected meaning into it. His head was buzzing with a pleasant dreamy
sensation. A very grateful warmth surrounded him, and with it came a
disposition to go to sleep. He probably would have gone to sleep had
his eye not fallen on a picture on the wall, It was a picture of a girl
pointing her finger at him. He suspected that she was pointing it at
him, and as he looked more closely he became very sure of it. . . No
girl could point her finger at him. He arose and made a lunge across
the room. He missed her, and with difficulty retraced his steps to the
table to make a fresh start.
"She's makin' fun of me," he said, "an' I don't stand for that. Nobody
can do that with me. Nobody--see? I don't 'low it."
"Oh, you don't," laughed one of the girls, running into a corner and
pointing a finger at him. "You don't?"
He turned his attention to her, steadying himself very carefully before
he attempted an advance. Then, with wide-stretched arms, he bore down
cautiously upon her. When he had her almost within reach she darted
along the edge of the room. He attempted a sudden change in direction,
which ended disastrously, and he found himself very much sprawled out
upon the floor. He was aware of laughter, but what cared he? He was
disposed to sleep. What better place to sleep than this? What better
time to sleep than this? In a moment he was lost to all consciousness.
. . .
It was later in the night when he felt himself being dragged into a
sitting posture. He remonstrated in a mumbling voice. "'S too early,"
he said. "Altogether too early. Early. Whew! Watch 'er spin. Jus'
his job. Paid for it, ain't he?"
"Well, I ain't paid for this," said Conward, rather roughly, "and you
got to pull yourself together. Here, take a little of this; it'll put
some gimp into you." He pressed a glass to his lips, and Dave
swallowed.
"Where am I?" he said, blinking at the light.
He rose uncertainly to his feet and stared about the room in returning
consciousness.
"Where's the girls?" he asked.
"Gone," said Conward, sulkily. "Couldn't expect 'em to stick around
all night to say good bye, could you, and you sleeping off your drunk?"
Dave raised his hand to his head. A sense of disgrace was already upon
him. Then he suddenly turned in anger on Conward.
"You put this up on me," he cried. "You made a fool of me. I've a
mind to bash your skull in for you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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