The suddenness of the question took her aback, but in a second she was smiling in spite of herself.
"No, I don't, Jerry. But lots of girls do. It's the fashion."
"It's very effective if not overdone," she evaded.
"There's no harm in it, is there? I'd wear it if I wanted to."
"Do you drink cocktails? Or smoke cigarettes?"
"No. I don't like cocktails. Besides they're not served at the Mission. We think they might create false notions of the purposes of the organization."
"No, I don't smoke. I don't like cigarettes."
"But if you liked them, _would_ you smoke?" he questioned eagerly.
"What a funny boy you are! What difference does it make what I do or don't do?"
"Would you smoke, if you liked to?" he still insisted.
"How can I tell what I'd do if I liked to when I don't like to?"
"Do you approve of them then--for women, I mean?"
"Just because I'd like to know what you think of such things--because you seem to me to be so calm, so sane in your point of view. You always impressed me that way--from the very first, even when you were making fun of me."
"Why do you think I'm sane?" she asked amusedly.
"Because there's no nonsense about you. There are a lot of things I'd like to talk to you about--things I don't quite understand--if you'd only let me see you."
"Yes. But I can't talk about them all--at once."
"You've made a pretty good start, I should say."
Jerry laughed. "I have, haven't I? That's the way I always do when I'm with you."
"Always?" she inquired, raising her brows with a show of dignity. "Do you realize that I have only met you once--twice before in my life--and then _most_ informally?"
"But you haven't. And I'm beginning to think I don't know you at all."
"But you do, better than anybody almost. It was awfully good of you to come here with me today--after my meeting you the way I did. I ought to apologize. Girls don't like to go with fellows when they come out of saloons, but I wasn't drinking, you know."
"No," he said hastily. And then to cover a possible misconception of his meaning, "But of course I _would_ drink, if I wanted to. I don't see any difference between having a drink at Finnegan's and having it in a club uptown."
She regarded him for a moment in silence and then,
"You do belong to some of the clubs, then?"