IV
The sun went down, and it was time for Mr. Roscoe to make his get-away. But first he had dinner; and when he was through with his ice-cream and coffee, he pushed his plate away, and took his napkin out of his neck, and leaned back in his chair with a sigh of content; and while he was unrolling his cigar from its gold foil, he fixed his shrewd eyes upon Bunny across the table, and said, “Jim Junior, I’ll tell you what’s the matter with you.”
“All right,” said Jim Junior, receptively.
“You’re a nice kid, but you’re too god-damn serious. You take life too hard—you and your old man both. You got to get a little fun as you go along, and I know what you need. You got a girl, kid?”
“Not right now,” said Bunny, blushing a trifle.
“I thought so. You need one, to take you out and cheer you up. Mind you, I don’t mean one of these jazz-babies—get a girl that’s got some sense, like my Annabelle. You know Annabelle Ames?”
“I’ve never met her. I’ve seen her, of course.”
“Did you see her in ‘Madame Tee-Zee’? By Jees, that’s what I call a picture—only one I ever made any money out of, by the way! Well, that girl takes care of me like a mother—if she’d been up here, I wouldn’t ’a drunk all that beer, you bet! You come up to my place some time, and Annabelle’ll find you a girl—lots of ’em up there, with the ginger in ’em, too, and she’s a regular little match-maker—never so happy as when she’s pairing ’em off, two little love-birds in a cage. Why don’t you drive back with me now?”
“I’ve got to go to college the day after tomorrow,” said Bunny.
“Well, you come some time, and bring the old man along. That’s what he needs too, a girl—I’ve told him so a dozen times. You got a girl yet, Jim? By Jees, look at him blush, the old maid in pants! I could tell the kid some things about you that would bust the rouge-pots in your cheeks—hey, old skeezicks?” And the great man, who had been getting out of his chair as he discoursed, fetched Dad a couple of thumps on the back and burst into a roar of laughter.
It was things like that that made you know Vernon Roscoe had a “big heart.” He seemed to have really taken a fancy to Bunny, and was concerned that he should learn to enjoy life. “You come see me some time, kiddo,” he said, as he was loading himself into his big limousine. “Don’t you forget it now, I mean it. I’ll show you what a country place can be like, and you make the old man get one too.” And Bunny said all right, he would come; and the engine began to purr, and the car rolled off in the moonlight, and the big laughing voice died away among the hills. “So long, kiddo!”