The Lady and the Pirate
Page 196"No, I think she rather favored you!" I replied gravely.
"No chance! And I say, isn't Sally a humdinger? Just the sort for
me--something doing every minute. And a fellow can always tell just
what she's thinkin'----"
"I'm not right sure, Cal, whether that's safe to say of any woman,"
said I. "A ship on the sea, or a serpent on a rock has--to use your
own quaint manner of speech, my friend--so to speak, nothing on the
way of a maid with a man. But go on. I do congratulate you. Do you
know, old man, I almost thought, once--a good while ago--that you were
just a little--that is--épris of Helena your own self?"
"Come again? 'Apree'--what's that?"
"--Gone on her."
"Oh, not at all, not at all--not in the least! Why, I can't see what
mean is, why--there was Sally, you know. Say, do you know why I wanted
to get Sally away on that boat?--I was afraid you'd cut in somewhere,
run across her down at Mardi Gras, or something. And I just figured,
once you got a girl on a boat that way, away from all the other
fellows, you know, why even a plain chap like me would have a chance,
do you see? And I say now, I'll own it up--I was right down jealous
of you, too! Wasn't it silly? And I ask your pardon. You're an
awfully good sort, Harry, though you're so d----d serious--you get too
much in earnest, take things too hard, you know. Will you shake hands
with me, knowing what a fool I've been? I say, you're the best chap in
the world, old man--if only you were a little more human once in a
while."
said I, "on precisely those same terms about having been an awful
fool? It's you who are the best chap in the world. And I'll admit
it--I was jealous of you!"
He roared at this. "Well," said he, "as George Cohan says, 'All's well
that ends well', and I guess we couldn't beat this for a championship
year, now could we? Now say, about Dingleheimer----"
"Oh, hang Dingleheimer, Cal!" I exclaimed. "What I want to know is,
did you ever talk any to Miss Emory about--well, about me, you
know?--say anything about my affairs, or anything, you know? I mean
while you were there on the boat together."
"No. She wouldn't let me. Besides, the truth is, I was so full of
Sally all the time, I mostly talked about her. By Jove! that was a
nose! But I proposed to Sally in Natchez that night, and she came on
down to the city the next day by rail--while I ran down in that
dirty little scow you left behind. And I never tumbled for days that
it was you had run off with the boat--though I found a photo of
Helena and your cigarette case in the boat you left. Never tumbled
till that story of the taxi driver came out. Then I said, 'Well, of
all things! Wonder if that old stick has really come to life after
all!' And you sure had! What's in your letter? Say, ain't a boat the
place----"