“Gee!” said Jimmy, as we passed the hotels all lighted up and looking so inviting and fine, “I wish I had the cash to blow you to a wine supper, Marion, but, I seem to spend every d——cent before I get it.”
“Never mind, Jimmy,” I said. “I’ve my meal ticket for that boarding-house.”
“Oh, that hash-slinging joint!” groaned Jimmy. “Say, Marion, I know a dandy place on Boylston Street, corner of Tremont, where there is mighty good grub and beer, and they don’t soak a fellow fancy prices. Let’s go there now, what do you say?”
“All right, but I thought you said you were broke?”
“Oh, that’s all right,” he replied airily. “Come along, and don’t ask questions.”
Somehow when I was with Jimmy, I never felt serious and I seemed to catch his happy-go-lucky spirit and say to myself: “Oh, well, I don’t care!”
Gaily we started for Jimmy’s restaurant. We had reached Elliott Street, when Jimmy said:
“Hold on a minute. You wait in this doorway for me a moment, Marion. I have to see a man on a matter of business.”
I stepped into the doorway, but I watched Jimmy. He swung into a shop over which there were hung three golden balls. Oh! I knew that place for I had already visited it. It sheltered my engagement ring—the ring Reggie had given to me! In a few minutes out came Jimmy minus his spring overcoat. It is true the day had been warm, but the nights were still chilly, and I felt badly to see him without his coat.
“Jimmy, what have you done? Where’s your coat?”