Part 17 (1/2)
”I was tuning up that evening to tell you, Goldie--while we were sitting there on your stoop, with the street-light in our eyes, and you screechin' every time a June-bug b.u.mbled in your face!”
”Gawd, how I hate bugs! There was one in Miss Gregory's--”
”I was going to tell you that night, Goldie, that there was only one girl--one girl for me--and--”
”Yeh; and while we were sittin' there gigglin' and screechin' at June-bugs poor Addie was provin' that a street-car fender has got it all over a mangling-machine.”
”Yes; it's like she says about herself--she was payin' her initiation fee for life members.h.i.+p into the Society of Cripples with a perfectly good hip and a bit of spine.”
”Poor Addie! Gawd, how she loved to dance! She used to spend every noon-hour eatin' marshmallows and learning me new steps.”
The wind soughed in their ears, and Goldie's skirts blew backward like sails.
”You haven't got a better friend than Addie right now, girlie! She always says our little flat is yours. The three of us, Goldie--the three of us could--”
”It's swell for a girl that ain't got none of her own blood to have a friend like that. Swell, lemme tell you!”
”Goldie!”
”Yes.”
”It's like I said--I've never talked right out before, but I got a feelin' you're slippin' away from me like a eel, girlie. You know--aw, you know I ain't much on the elocution stuff; but if it wasn't for Addie and her accident right now--I'd ask you outright--I would. You know what I mean!”
”I don't know anything, Eddie; I'm no mind-reader!”
”Aw, cut it out, Goldie! You know I'm tied up right now and can't say some of the things I was going to say that night on the stoop. You know what I mean--with Addie's doctor's bills and chair and crutches, and all.”
”Sure I do, Eddie. You've got no right to think of anything.”
She turned from him so that her profile was like a white cameo mounted on black velvet.
”You just give me a little time, Goldie, and I'll be on my feet, all righty. I just want some kind of understanding between us--that's all.”
”Oh--you--I--”
”I got Joe's job cinched if he goes over to the other firm in March; and by that time, Goldie, you and me and Addie, on eighty per, could--why, we--”
She swayed back from his close glance and ran up the first three steps of her rooming-house. Her face was struck with fear suddenly, as with a white flame out of the sky.
”'Sh-h-h-h-h-h!” she said. ”You mustn't!”
He reached for her hand, caught it and held it--but like a man who feels the rope sliding through his fingers and sees his schooner slipping out to sea--slipping out to sea.
”Lemme go, Eddie! I gotta go--it's late!”
”I _know_, Goldie. They been guyin' me at the office about you pa.s.sin'
me up; and it's right--ain't it? It's--It's him--” She shook her head and tugged for the freedom of her hand. Tears crowded into her eyes like water to the surface of a tumbler just before the overflow. ”It's _him_--ain't it, Goldie?”
”Well, you won't give--give a girl a chance to say anything. If you'd have given me time I was comin' over and tell you, and--and tell--”