"Just for a breath of air," explained Zoie sweetly She had now entirely
regained her self-possession.
"Isn't he very young to be out at night?" asked Alfred with a puzzled
frown.
"We told Jimmy that," answered Aggie, amazed at the promptness
with which each succeeding lie presented itself. "But you see," she
continued, "Jimmy is so crazy about the child that we can't do anything
with him."
"Jimmy crazy about my baby?" exclaimed Alfred incredulously. "He always
said babies were 'little red worms.'"
"Not this one," answered Zoie sweetly.
"No, indeed," chimed in Aggie. "He acts as though he owned it."
"Oh, DOES he?" exclaimed Alfred hotly. "I'll soon put a stop to that,"
he declared. "Where did he take him?"
Again the two women looked at each other inquiringly, then Aggie
stammered evasively.
"Oh, j-just downstairs--somewhere."
"I'll LOOK j-just downstairs somewhere," decided Alfred, and he snatched
up his hat and started toward the door.
"Alfred!" cried Zoie in alarm.
Coming back to her bedside to reassure her, Alfred was caught in a
frantic embrace. "I'll be back in a minute, dear," he said, but Zoie
clung to him and pleaded desperately.
"You aren't going to leave me the very first thing?"
Alfred hesitated. He had no wish to be cruel to Zoie, but the thought of
Jimmy out in the street with his baby at this hour of the night was not
to be borne.
Zoie renewed her efforts at persuasion. "Now, dearie," she said, "I
wish you'd go get shaved and wash up a bit. I don't wish baby to see you
looking so horrid."
"Yes, do, Alfred," insisted Aggie. "He's sure to be here in a minute."
"My boy won't care HOW his father looks," declared Alfred proudly, and
Zoie told Aggie afterward that his chest had momentarily expanded three
inches.
"But I care," persisted Zoie. "First impressions are so important."
"Now, Zoie," cautioned Aggie, as she crossed toward the bed with
affected solicitude. "You mustn't excite yourself."
Zoie was quick to understand the suggested change in her tactics, and
again she sank back on her pillows apparently ill and faint.
Utterly vanquished by the dire result of his apparently inhuman
thoughtlessness, Alfred glanced at Aggie, uncertain as to how to repair
the injury.
Aggie beckoned to him to come away from the bed.