There came the most bewitching smile, a smile decorated
with two rows of pearly white teeth. “Don’t
you understand, Comrade Higgins? No woman believes
in marriage—until she meets the right man.”
This was much too subtle. Jimmie was still gaping
open-mouthed. “But then, I thought—I
thought—” he stopped again; for in
truth, he had not known quite what he thought, and
anyway, it seemed futile to try to formulate it now.
But, of course, she knew, without his telling her;
she knew the meaning of his look of dismay, and of
his stammering words. Being a kind little creature,
she laid her hand on his arm. “Comrade
Higgins,” she said, “don’t think
I’m too mean!”
“Mean?” he cried. “Why, no!
What? How—”
“Try to imagine you were a girl, Comrade Higgins.
You can’t propose to a man, can you?”
“Why, no—that is—”
“That is, not if you want him to accept!
You have to make him do it. And maybe he’s
shy, and don’t do it, and you have to put the
idea in his head for him. Or maybe he’s
not sure he wants you, and you have to make him realize
how very desirable you are! Maybe you have to
scare him, making him think you’re going to run
off with somebody else! Don’t you see how
it is with a girl?”
Jimmie was still bady dazed, but he saw enough to
enable him to stammer, “Yes.” And
Comrade Baskerville—that is, Comrade Mrs.
Gerrity—gave him her hand again.
“Comrade Higgins,” she said, “you’re
a dear, sweet fellow, and you won’t be too angry
with me, will you? We’ll be friends, won’t
we, Comrade Higgins?”
And Jimmie clasped the soft, warm hand, and gazed
into the shining brown eyes, and he made a part of
the wonderful speech which he had been planning as
he walked. He said: “Always! Always!”
JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT
The world struggle continued with constantly increasing
ferocity. All summer long the Germans hammered
at the French and British lines; while the British
hammered at the gates of Constantinople, and the Italians
at the gates of Trieste. The Germans sent their
giant airships to drop loads of bombs on London and
their submarines to sink passenger-steamers and hospital-ships.
Each fresh outrage against international law became
the occasion of more letters of protest from the United
States, and of more controversies in the newspapers,
and in Congress, and in Kumme’s bicycle-shop
on Jefferson Street, Leesville.
