Part 13 (1/2)
”Good little fairy,” he said, ”I want to put some gold dust in the pot, too.”
”Wait until we get to the end of the rainbow.”
”Just keep a record for me. My mind is such a sieve,” he said, offering the spurned black book.
”All right. Give me the Black Maria. I will ride your figures in it.”
”That was a pun. You ought to be spanked.”
”Oh, Jarvis, isn't it fun?” she cried to him.
”Is it? I feel that turning salesman and approaching a manager is like marching to the block.”
”Poor old dreamer! Suppose you stay home, and let me peddle the play.”
”Not much. I will shoulder my own pack.”
”I feel like a Crusader myself. I'd rather be _me_ than anybody on earth.”
”The most extraordinary thing about you is your rapture,” he commented, seriously.
She ran away, singing ”Then Longen folke to go on Pilgrimauges.”
The next day they set forth on their journey. Bambi left lists all over the house as reminders for the Professor. Ardelia had orders enough to manoeuvre an army. The Professor went to the station with them, and absent-mindedly kissed Jarvis good-bye, which infuriated his victim and nearly sent Bambi into hysterics. As the train pulled out, she leaned from the window and called, ”Go home, now, Professor!” and with a mechanical jerk he turned and started off in the direction indicated.
”I never leave him with any comfort,” she admitted to Jarvis. ”He is so apt to mislay himself.”
”He always makes me think of a mechanical toy, ever since he told me that he always counted whatever he did. I am sure that you wind him up, like a watch, every night.”
”Poor old dear! Funny I should have chosen him for a father, isn't it?”
”I think your choice of relations is distinctly queer.”
”My queer relations! That's a good t.i.tle. Everybody would understand it at once.”
”Thank heaven, I haven't any, queer, or otherwise.”
”Didn't you ever have any?”
”No.”
”Just growed?”
He nodded.
”I remember a funny old man you lived with, when I first knew you.
Wasn't he a relative?”
”No, he found me some place. What's the difference? Do you care?”