Part 29 (1/2)
”Ah, that's a different matter,” Danny explained airily. ”You see, Rosie, there be two cla.s.ses of men, sensible men and fools, and most men belong to both cla.s.ses. Now a sensible man knows that a sweet loving woman will make him a happy home and a good mother to his children. Any man'll agree to that. So I'm right when I tell you that all men love that kind of a woman, for they do. But let a bold hussy come along with a handsome face on her and a nasty wicked temper, and before you count ten she'll call out all the fool there is in a man and off he goes after her as crazy as a half-witted rooster. Ah, I've seen it time and again.
Many a poor lad that ought have known better has put the halter about his own neck! Have you ever thought, Rosie dear, of the queer ch'ices men make when they marry?”
”Danny, I don't know what you mean.”
Danny's eyes took on a far-away look. ”Take Mary and me. For forty years now I've been wonderin' what it was that married us.”
”Why, Danny!” Rosie's expression was reproachful. ”Didn't you love Mary?”
”Love her, do you say? Why, of course I loved her! Didn't me knees go weak at sight of her and me head dizzy? But the question is: why did I love her or why did she love me? There I was a gay dancing blade of a lad and Mary a serious owl of a girl that had never footed a jig in her life and would have died of shame not to have her was.h.i.+n' out bright and early of a Monda' mornin'. Now what was it, I ask you, that put love between us?”
Danny appealed to his young friend as man to man. Rosie, however, was not a person to grant the purely academic side of any question that was perfectly clear and matter-of-fact.
”Why, you loved her, Danny, and she loved you and that's all there was to it.”
For a moment Danny looked blank. Then he chuckled. ”Strange I didn't think of that before!” His eyes began to twinkle. ”I'll wager, Rosie dear, ye've never lain awake o' nights wondering what it was that made the world go round, have you now?”
Rosie's answer was emphatic: ”Of course not! I'm not so silly!”
Danny laughed. ”I thought not.”
Rosie went back to serious matters. ”But, Danny, I can't understand about Jarge Riley and Ellen. Why is he so crazy about Ellen?”
Danny drew a long face. ”The truth is, I suppose he loves her.”
”But why does he love her?”
Danny's eyes opened wide. ”Is it yourself, Rosie O'Brien, that's askin'
me why?”
”I don't understand it at all,” Rosie continued. ”I've got a mind to give Jarge a good talking to. He just ought to be told a few things for his own good.”
”I'm sure he'll listen to you.” There was a hint of guile in Danny's voice but Rosie refused to hear it.
”He always does listen to me. We're mighty good friends, Jarge and me.... Yes, I'll just talk to him tonight. I'll put it to him quietly.
Jarge has got lots of sense if only you talk to him right.”
”Of course he has,” Danny agreed. ”And, Rosie dear, I'm consumed with impatience to hear the outcome of your conference. You won't fail to stop in and tell me about it tomorrow--promise me that!”
Rosie promised. She bid her old friend good-bye and left him, her mind already full of the things she would say to George Riley.
CHAPTER XXVI
ELLEN
”I don't know what's keepin' poor Ellen,” Mrs. O'Brien remarked as the family gathered at supper that evening. ”They're awful busy at them down-town offices, I'm thinkin'. Ellen was expectin' to be home at six o'clock sharp but something important must have come in and they need her. Ah, say what you will, a poor girl's got to work mighty hard these days.”
”Huh!” grunted Terry.