re, little Doll, quit
your shivering and shaking and lemme help you on--lemme help you."

She was suddenly pale, but tense-lipped like a woman who struggles
on the edge of a swoon. "Jimmie, honest, I--I'm shaking with chills!
Jimmie--I--I can't go in these duds, neither. I--I gotta go home now.
He'll be wakin' and I--I gotta go home now. I'm all shaking." In spite
of herself her lips quivered and an ague shot through her body. "I--I
gotta go home now, Jimmie. Look at me shivering, all shivering!"

"Home now!" His eyes retreated behind a network of calculating wrinkles
and she paled as she sat. "Home now? Say, Doll, I thought--"

"Honest, I wanna go to the other place, but I'm cold, Jimmie, and--wet
through. I gotta keep well, Jimmie, and I--I oughtta go home."

"Pah!" he said, spluttering out the end of a bitten cigar. "If I'd 'a'
known you was a puny Doll like that!"

"I ain't, Jimmie; I--"

"If I'd 'a' known you was that puny! It's like I been sayin', Doll, it
ain't like you and me don't understand each other. I--"

"Sure we do, Jimmie. Honest, I--To-morrow night I--I can fix it so
that--that the sky's my limit. I'll meet you at Hinkley's at eight,
cross my heart on a wishbone, Jimmie."

"Cross it!"

"There!"

"To-night, Jimmie, I'm chilled--all in. Look at me in these duds,
Jimmie. I'm cold. Oh, Jimmie, get me a cab quick, please; I'm co-old!"

She relaxed frankly into a chill that rumbled through her and jarred her
knees together. A little rivulet of water oozed from her hair, zigzagged
down her cheek and seeped into her blouse, but her blue-lipped smile
persisted.

"Ain't I a nut, though! But wait till you see me dolled up to-morrow
night, Jimmie! Eight at Hinkley's. I didn't have a hunch how cold--how
cold that water was. Next time they gotta--heat it."

"Got to heat it is good, Doll! All I got to do is ask once, and my
word's law round here. Here, take a swallow and warm up, hon. You don't
need to go home if you warm up right."

But the glass tinked against her teeth.

"I--I can't'"

"Gowann, kiddo!"

"I'll take some home with me to warm me up when I get in bed, Jimmie.
I--Not that kind, give it to me red like you did last Tuesday night,
without the sparkles. That's the kind to warm me up. Order a bottle of
red without the sparkles, Jimmie--without the sparkles. I--I can't stand
no more bubbles to-night."

He helped her into her coat, and she leaned to him with a little
movement of exhaust