“Yes, Godfrey, ever so much. I knew you would be. Travel always does that,” Alice said, her spirits a good deal lightened by his few words of commendation. “And, Godfrey,” she continued, “I guess I’ll go and fix my hair now. There will be time.”
She choked a little, for “fixing her hair” was a vast amount of trouble, but if Godfrey was suited, she did not care.
“Nonsense,” he said, tightening the grasp of his arm about her waist, “your hair is well enough for once. Stay with me and let’s talk. Only think how long it is since you had a chance to lecture me except by letter, which does not go for much, and I’m real glad to see you, Allie. I am, by Jo——. No, I mean I am, Allie; I am trying to quit my slang, though it is like pulling teeth sometimes.”
“Yes, Godfrey,” and folding her small, fat hands on her lap, Alice looked happy, and content, and satisfied. “Yes, Godfrey, I knew that trip abroad would effect great things for you.”
“Oh, bother, Allie, it isn’t that. I heard just as much slang, and saw just as many clowns, and snobs, and fools abroad as I ever saw here; and more too. Travel didn’t improve my mind or manners; it was a little girl. Oh! don’t look so disturbed,” he added, as Alice bridled at the mention of a girl. “You needn’t be jealous at all. She isn’t bigger than my thumb, and is only twelve years old. She was on the ship with us and awful sick, and so was I. I tell you what, I have been down to the very depths and felt deep calling unto deep in a way I never wish to hear it call again. Ugh! the very thought of that cold creep which begins at the toes and ends in the spittoon makes me dizzy; and with a swaying motion Godfrey rocked from side to side until his head rested on Alice’s shoulder.
But she moved away from him with dignified propriety, saying:
“Yes, I know, I have been sea-sick too; it is dreadful; but what of the little girl, and who was she?”
“Oh, yes, I was telling you about her. She had been sick, and was sitting on deck, all wrapped up in shawls and blankets, and looking so like some pure white pond lily, that I kissed her right on the mouth!”
“Godfrey!” Alice exclaimed, indignantly; while he rejoined:
“You are not half as angry as she was. I never saw anything like the gleam in her blue eyes. Had I really insulted her she could not have taken it worse than she did, or reproached me more sharply. I never heard anything like the way she talked to me. Why, I felt as ashamed as a dog, and when she attacked my slang, as she called my free style of talk, I promised her I would break myself of it and try to come up to her idea of a gentleman.”