“Isn’t she the whole works, Johnny?” said I.
“Not exactly, Jack. Her brother is the part of the works I can’t make go.”
“Johnny,” said I, grabbing him by the hand, “now I am in dead earnest. We will land that order if it takes the last drink in the bar.”
“How do you propose to do it, Jack?”
“I don’t know yet,” said I, “but you hold the bunch together that you have and I will agree to land the other duffer—what is his name, anyway?”
“Doctor Davidson,” said Johnny, brightening up at my earnestness, “but I don’t think you know what you are up against.”
“Never mind what I am up against, I have given you my promise and Jack Henderson never goes back on his word.”
I had no idea as to how it could be done, but I had decided that the first thing for me to do was to get acquainted with Miss Davidson. Did it ever strike you, Billy, how hard a chap will work to get acquainted with a woman who strikes his fancy? I don’t know of anything he will work harder at unless it is to get rid of one that he has taken a dislike to. I never had much experience in that line, but I was willing to try—no, not willing, for when I thought of those eyes I felt that I must try. I went to work in earnest and found out that she was the doctor’s pet sister, that she lived with him and that her front name was Laura. Billy, I never knew that was such a pretty name before. I actually reformed some, I quit drinking before breakfast.
The next thing I did was to watch my chance and meet her good and fair. I bowed and smiled, but she gave me the busy signal and passed on, then I waked up to the fact that men did not get acquainted with this kind of a girl in that way. Then it came to me that I had heard that society people always had to be introduced and I realized I was up against it right. I could not help but think of what Dug and Konk would say if they knew I had gone nutty on account of a pair of brown eyes and a smile.
My next stroke was a bold one, but it worked. I dropped in at a church social after I had seen Miss Laura enter the church. It is a fact, Billy, though—if I knew how, I would blush to tell it—I really went into a church after those brown eyes. After I got in there I felt as much out of place as I ever did in school; the only familiar face I saw was Laura’s, and I did not dare to look at her. The minister came along and I overheard a little conversation that put me on to the right track. A lady commenced it by saying: