"What shall I do with this one, sir?" asked the officer, undecided as to
Jimmy's exact standing in the household.
"Shoot him, for all I care," groaned Alfred, and he rocked to and fro.
"How ungrateful!" exclaimed Aggie, then she signalled to the officer to
go.
"No more of your funny business," said the officer with a parting nod at
Jimmy and a vindictive light in his eyes when he remembered the bruises
that Jimmy had left on his shins.
"Oh, Jimmy!" said Aggie sympathetically, and she pressed her hot face
against his round apoplectic cheek. "You poor dear! And after all you
have done for us!"
"Yes," sneered Zoie, having regained sufficient strength to stagger to
her feet, "he's done a lot, hasn't he?" And then forgetting that her
original adventure with Jimmy which had brought about such disastrous
results was still unknown to Aggie and Alfred, she concluded bitterly,
"All this would never have happened, if it hadn't been for Jimmy and his
horrid old luncheon."
Jimmy was startled. This was too much, and just as he had seemed to be
well out of complications for the remainder of his no doubt short life.
He turned to bolt for the door but Aggie's eyes were upon him.
"Luncheon?" exclaimed Aggie and she regarded him with a puzzled frown.
Zoie's hand was already over her lips, but too late.
Recovering from his somewhat bewildering sense of loss, Alfred, too, was
now beginning to sit up and take notice.
"What luncheon?" he demanded.
Zoie gazed from Alfred to Aggie, then at Jimmy, then resolving to make
a clean breast of the matter, she sidled toward Alfred with her most
ingratiating manner.
"Now, Alfred," she purred, as she endeavoured to act one arm about
his unsuspecting neck, "if you'll only listen, I'll tell you the REAL
TRUTH."
A wild despairing cry from Alfred, a dash toward the door by Jimmy, and
a determined effort on Aggie's part to detain her spouse, temporarily
interrupted Zoie's narrative.
But in spite of these discouragements, Zoie did eventually tell Alfred
the real truth, and before the sun had risen on the beginning of another
day, she had added to her confession, promises whose happy fulfillment
was evidenced for many years after by the chatter of glad young voices,
up and down the stairway of Alfred's new suburban home, and the flutter
of golden curls in and out amongst the sunlight and shadows of his
ample, well kept grounds.