Baby Mine | Page 9

a grave, dignified air out
of which he was promptly startled by Zoie's even more unseemly
greeting.
"Hello, Jimmy!" she snapped. Her tone was certainly not that of a
heart-broken widow. "It's TIME you got here," she added with an
injured air.
Jimmy gazed at Zoie in astonishment. She was never what he would
have called a sympathetic woman, but really----!
"I came the moment you 'phoned me," he stammered; "what is it?
What's the matter?"
"It's awful," sniffled Zoie. And she tore up and down the room
regardless of the fact that Jimmy was still unseated.
"Awful what?" questioned Jimmy.
"Worst I've ever had," sobbed Zoie.
"Is anything wrong with Alfred?" ventured Jimmy. And he braced

himself for her answer.
"He's gone," sobbed Zoie.
"Gone!" echoed Jimmy, feeling sure that his worst fears were about to
be realised. "Gone where?"
"I don't know," sniffled Zoie, "I just 'phoned his office. He isn't there."
"Oh, is that all?" answered Jimmy, with a sigh of relief. "Just another
little family tiff," he was unable to conceal a feeling of thankfulness.
"What's up?"
Zoie measured Jimmy with a dangerous gleam in her eyes. She
resented the patronising tone that he was adopting. How dare he be
cheerful when she was so unhappy--and because of him, too? She
determined that his self-complacency should be short-lived.
"Alfred has found out that I lied about the luncheon," she said,
weighing her words and their effect upon Jimmy.
"What luncheon?" stuttered Jimmy, feeling sure that Zoie had suddenly
marked him for her victim, but puzzled as to what form her persecution
was about to take.
"What luncheon?" repeated Zoie, trying apparently to conceal her
disgust at his dulness. "OUR luncheon yesterday."
"Why did you LIE," asked Jimmy, his eyes growing rounder and
rounder with wonder.
"I didn't know he KNEW," answered Zoie innocently.
"Knew what?" questioned Jimmy, more and more befogged.
"That I'd eaten with a man," concluded Zoie impatiently. Then she
turned her back upon Jimmy and again dashed up and down the room
occupied with her own thoughts.

It was certainly difficult to get much understanding out of Zoie's
disjointed observations, but Jimmy was doing his best. He followed her
restless movements about the room with his eyes, and then ventured a
timid comment.
"He couldn't object to your eating with me."
"Oh, couldn't he?" cried Zoie, and she turned upon him with a look of
contempt. "If there's anything that he DOESN'T object to," she
continued, "I haven't found it out yet." And with that she threw herself
in a large arm chair near the table, and left Jimmy to draw his own
conclusions.
Jimmy looked about the room as though expecting aid from some
unseen source; then his eyes sought the floor. Eventually they crept to
the tip of Zoie's tiny slipper as it beat a nervous tattoo on the rug. To
save his immortal soul, Jimmy could never help being hypnotised by
Zoie's small feet. He wondered now if they had been the reason of
Alfred's first downfall. He recalled with a sigh of relief that Aggie's feet
were large and reassuring. He also recalled an appropriate quotation:
"The path of virtue is not for women with small feet," it ran. "Yes,
Aggie's feet are undoubtedly large," he concluded. But all this was not
solving Zoie's immediate problem; and an impatient cough from her
made him realise that something was expected of him.
"Why did you lunch with me," he asked, with a touch of irritation, "if
you thought he wouldn't like it?"
"I was hungry," snapped Zoie.
"Oh," grunted Jimmy, and in spite of his dislike of the small creature
his vanity resented the bald assertion that she had not lunched with him
for his company's sake.
"I wouldn't have made an engagement with you of course," she
continued, with a frankness that vanquished any remaining conceit that
Jimmy might have brought with him. "I explained to you how it was at
the time. It was merely a case of convenience. You know that."

Jimmy was beginning to see it more and more in the light of an
inconvenience.
"If you hadn't been in front of that horrid old restaurant just when I was
passing," she continued, "all this would never have happened. But you
were there, and you asked me to come in and have a bite with you; and
I did, and there you are."
"Yes, there I am," assented Jimmy dismally. There was no doubt about
where he was now, but where was he going to end? That was the
question. "See here," he exclaimed with fast growing uneasiness, "I
don't like being mixed up in this sort of thing."
"Of course you'd think of yourself first," sneered Zoie. "That's just like
a man."
"Well, I don't want to get