"Sure, blame it on her, Adam," Pudge O'Shay made grumpy interposition. "Remember, though, that this ain't the first evening I've caught you trying new ways of exercising in the park."
Jane turned toward the sergeant. "Can't we settle about the bail and be off, sir?"
He coughed, bent for a moment's scribbling; made answer direct to Irene.
"Here's a receipt for your jewelry, miss. I'll take a chance on its value. While I don't congratulate anybody on getting pinched, I'm glad that your friends, if they must cut capers, have you to help them out. Thank you for breezing into this gloomy old place."
"Good for you, you nice old barking dog that don't bite!" enthused the girl. "I _thought_ you weren't half as cross as you look. I don't know what my friends have done to get the law down on them, but I _do_ believe in their innocence of motive and so may you. My cousin is the stormy petrel sort, with the best intentions in the world, but _always_ getting herself and others into trouble. And Why-Not Pape--He's just from the West, you know, and I haven't had time yet to teach him how to behave in a city. In a way you have done me a favor in pinching them, as you so cleverly put it. It is _something_ for a true woman to be given the opportunity to show by her actions just how much she--You get what I mean, don't you--or _do_ you?"
Others in the room got it rather more forcefully than he. Pape suppressed a groan at the flush which had blotted the pallor of Jane's face. Fast though he had worked, this infant fiend worked faster. Hard though he had tried, she had upset all his gains with a laugh and a sigh. Desperate though he felt to protest her claim on him, the fact that she claimed him discounted any protestation he might make. His West had schooled him in deeds, not words. By deeds he would--he _must_ prove the truth.
Characteristically Irene rewarded Adonis Moore. He was a "dear" of a horse cop and wore his uniform just "scrumptiously." He must keep an eye out for her when next she rode over park bridle-paths. She thanked him for her friends, therefore for her. It was these acts of simple human kindness that made the world worth while. Didn't he agree with her--or _did_ he? She only hoped that others were as appreciative of _her_ efforts as was she of his.