“Hello, I’m all right,” he murmured with a one-sided grin. “Say, Bill, wasn’t it great? I wouldn’t have missed it for a million dollars.”
He sank back with a sigh of supreme satisfaction. “I just wish I could remember all the things he called me. I want to spring them on the fellows when I go back.”
Bill looked at him with genuine concern. “See here, kid,” he said decidedly, “you want to forget all them things as quick as you can. Don’t you go springin’ any such language back where you come from. I’m no innocent babe myself, but I’m here to tell you old Bohm’s cussin’ made anything I ever heard sound like a Sunday School piece. You forget it now, pronto,” he commanded as he went out of the door. “It’s a reflection on me and Mrs. Brook.”
After Bill had gone, Ted looked at himself again, then at me. “What do you suppose Aunt Elizabeth would say if she could see me now?” We both laughed.
“I would be a ‘disgrace to my family and position’ now, sure enough.” He felt his blackened eye tenderly.
I sat down on the couch beside him. “You will never be more of a credit to your family than you are at this minute, Ted, nor more of a man.”
He looked up, for my voice shook a little. He knew what I meant and his lips twitched as he patted my hand gently, and turned his face away.
XII—BLIZZARDS
It was just like Louise Reynolds to arrive on the wings of a blizzard, wearing a straw hat and spring suit. Louise led the seasons, she never followed them, and she preceded that particular storm by about two hours; but she was justified, for it was April and she was on her way from California.
In this land of the unexpected even the weather disregarded all established precedents. A glorious Indian Summer night extended into January, or a sudden blizzard would swoop down from the North in October or April and leave us snowed in for days.