Her eyes wandered uncertainly past him into the crowd.
“I s’pose,” she added, thrusting out her pink lips in a pout, “that _she’s_ here somewheres.”
“No,” laughed David. “‘She’ doesn’t happen to be along to-day.”
A wayward impulse prompted his next words.
“What do you think, Jennie? I asked her and she wouldn’t come with me.”
The girl’s voice held wonder, incredulity, longing. Her eyes said more.
“You wouldn’t treat me that way, would you, Jennie?”
The girl looked down, an unsuspected delicacy sealing her lips.
David looked at the pretty shadowy circle of the long lashes on the smooth pink cheek.
“You wouldn’t; now, would you, Jennie?” he persisted.
The girl glanced at him sidewise, and tossed her head.
“What do you want t’ know for?” she demanded. “If you don’t like the way she treats you, you c’n tell her so, can’t you?”
“Don’t you want some ice cream, Jennie?” he asked.
“I came t’ the fair with Gus Bamber,” she said. “An’ what do you think, we hadn’t no more’n got here when Sutton got after Gus t’ help him in the refreshment booth. Said the other fellow he’d hired wasn’t no good at mixin’ drinks; an’ so nothin’ would do but he must have Gus t’ help. Both of us was awful mad; but we didn’t das’ say so to old Sutton. He’s somethin’ fierce if you don’t do ’xactly as he says.”
“Well, that’s pretty good!” giggled the girl. “I guess you’d ought t’ know Gus Bamber b’ this time. He waits on you often enough at the Eagle.”
“Oh, you mean Sutton’s barkeep—Gus; yes, that’s so. I didn’t know his name was Bamber, though.”
“It is,” the girl said. “Augustus Bamber. I think it’s a real nice name, too. But I don’t like it ’s well’s I do yours.”
“That’s kind of you,” drawled David. “_Mrs._ Augustus Bamber sounds pretty well, though—eh, Jennie?”
“Not on your life!” she said positively. “‘N’ I’ve told him so more’n fifty times already, I guess.”
She lifted her eyes to David’s with innocent coquetry.
“I don’t b’lieve in gettin’ married t’ anybody ’nless you’re awfully in love with ’em. That’s what I keep tellin’ Gus, but he says——”
“Are you coming with me to get that ice cream?” asked David, stifling a yawn.
“I dunno whether I’ve got the nerve,” murmured the girl. “The ice cream’s in the same booth where Gus is; it’s right acrost from where Sutton’s got his concession. ’F he should see me—with you——”