"Very well, sir, I'll keep her for a few days and have her fitted out
in a lot of folderols for you, but only for a short period, mind you.
A very short period!" answered my Uncle, the General Robert, with a
smile that showed much delight in me. I flew to him and gave to him an
embrace with my arms and also laid my cheek against his.
"I am for always your most humble and obedient girl, my Uncle Robert,"
I whispered to him.
"Humble and obedient--no woman would know those words if she met them
in her own drawing-room," he answered to me with a great scorn but he
also gave to me a shake that was of a seeming great fierceness, but
that I knew to be a caress.
And into that caress came also another interruption of great hurry. My
Buzz entered the door with a rapidity and this exclamation:
"What's the trouble, General? I just got your phone and--" Then he too
stood in a great and sudden stillness, regarding me as I stood from
the shelter of the arms of my Uncle, the General Robert, and looked
into his eyes of great fright.
"My Buzz," I said to him softly.
"Great heavens!" he exclaimed, with terror in his eyes as he backed
away from me. "I haven't had but one glass of draft beer, General."
"It's all right, Buzz," answered my very wise Gouverneur Faulkner, in
a voice of great soothing. "This is just--just Robert in a--a--"
"Not much Bobby, that," answered my Buzz as he backed farther towards
the door. "I think I'll step outside in the cool air. I haven't felt
well all day. I--" and with which remark my good Buzz turned himself
into the arms of the lovely Mademoiselle Sue entering the door.
"I'm tired of waiting out there in that car, Buzz, and--" And again
came an awful pause of terror. But is it not that women have a wit
that is very much more rapid than is that of men? I think it is so.
"You know, I thought Bobby was a queer kind of man and he is a
perfectly lovely girl," she said as she came towards me with a laugh
and her lovely arms outstretched. "I read about two French girls who
got into Germany in German uniforms, just last night in a magazine.
You are some kind of a French spy about those dreadful mules, aren't
you, Bobby dear?" And as she asked that question of me, my lovely Sue
gave to me a kiss upon my lips that I valued with a great gratitude.
"Please make it that my Buzz also understands," I pleaded to her
within her arms.
"Brace up, Buzz, and be nice to Bobby, even if he is a girl. Just when
did you begin not to like girls, I'd like to know?" questioned my Sue
of him with a great emphasis.
"You see why it is that I cannot go into that business of timber with
you and be married to--" I made a commencement to say to him.
"That will do, L'Aiglon," interrupted my Buzz with a great haste and a
glance in the direction of lovely Sue. "Forget it! It is an awful
shame, for you were one nice youngster and--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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