Baby Mine | Page 7

the less contented. He seldom saw his
old friend Alfred now, but Aggie kept more or less in touch with Zoie;
and over the luncheon table the affairs of the two husbands were often
discussed by their wives. It was after one of these luncheons that Aggie
upset Jimmy's evening repose by the fireside by telling him that she
was a wee bit worried about Zoie and Alfred.
"Alfred is so unreasonable," said Aggie, "so peevish."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Jimmy shortly. "If he's peevish he has some
good reason. You can be sure of that."
"You needn't get cross with me, Jimmy," said Aggie in a hurt voice.
"Why should I be cross with you?" snapped Jimmy. "It isn't YOUR
fault if Alfred's made a fool of himself by marrying the last person on
earth whom he should have married."

"I think he was very lucky to get her," argued Aggie in defence of her
friend.
"Oh, you do, do you?" answered Jimmy in a very aggrieved tone.
"She is one of the prettiest girls in Chicago," said Aggie.
"You're pretty too," answered Jimmy, "but it doesn't make an idiot of
you."
"It's TIME you said something nice to me," purred Aggie; and her arm
stole fondly around Jimmy's large neck.
"I don't know why it is," said Jimmy, shaking his head dejectedly, "but
every time Zoie Hardy's name is mentioned in this house it seems to
stir up some sort of a row between you and me."
"That's because you're so prejudiced," answered Aggie with a touch of
irritation.
"There you go again," said Jimmy.
"I didn't mean it!" interposed Aggie contritely. "Oh, come now,
Jimmy," she pleaded, "let's trundle off to bed and forget all about it."
And they did.
But the next day, as Jimmy was heading for the La Salle restaurant to
get his luncheon, who should call to him airily from a passing taxi but
Zoie. It was apparent that she wished him to wait until she could alight;
and in spite of his disinclination to do so, he not only waited but
followed the taxi to its stopping place and helped the young woman to
the pavement.
"Oh, you darling!" exclaimed Zoie, all of a flutter, and looking exactly
like an animated doll. "You've just saved my life." She called to the taxi
driver to "wait."
"Are you in trouble?" asked the guileless Jimmy.

"Yes, dreadful," answered Zoie, and she thrust a half-dozen small
parcels into Jimmy's arms. "I have to be at my dressmaker's in half an
hour; and I haven't had a bite of lunch. I'm miles and miles from home;
and I can't go into a restaurant and eat just by myself without being
stared at. Wasn't it lucky that I saw you when I did?"
There was really very little left for Jimmy to say, so he said it; and a
few minutes later they were seated tete-a-tete in one of Chicago's most
fashionable restaurants, and Zoie the unconscious flirt was looking up
at Jimmy with apparently adoring eyes, and suggesting all the eatables
which he particularly abominated.
No sooner had the unfortunate man acquiesced in one thing and
communicated Zoie's wish to the waiter, than the flighty young person
found something else on the menu that she considered more tempting
to her palate. Time and again the waiter had to be recalled and the order
had to be given over until Jimmy felt himself laying up a store of
nervous indigestion that would doubtless last him for days.
When the coveted food at last arrived, Zoie had become completely
engrossed in the headgear of one of her neighbours, and it was only
after Jimmy had been induced to make himself ridiculous by craning
his neck to see things of no possible interest to him that Zoie at last
gave her attention to her plate.
In obeyance of Jimmy's order the waiter managed to rush the lunch
through within three- quarters of an hour; but when Jimmy and Zoie at
length rose to go he was so insanely irritated, that he declared they had
been in the place for hours; demanded that the waiter hurry his bill; and
then finally departed in high dudgeon without leaving the customary
"tip" behind him.
But all this was without its effect upon Zoie, who, a few moments later
rode away in her taxi, waving gaily to Jimmy who was now late for
business and thoroughly at odds with himself and the world.
As a result of the time lost at luncheon Jimmy missed an appointment
that had to wait over until after office hours, and as a result of this

postponement, he missed Aggie, who went to a friend's house for
dinner, leaving word for him to follow. For the first time in his life,
Jimmy disobeyed