Page:A Damsel in Distress.pdf/37

 “Mr. Bevan and I was ’aving a talk about ’im being blarzy, miss.”

“Are you blarzy, George?”

“So Mac says.”

“And why is he blarzy, miss?” demanded Mac rhetorically.

“Don’t ask me,” said Billie. “It’s not my fault.”

“It’s because, as I was saying, ’e’s ’ad too big a ’elping of success, and because ’e ain’t a married man. You did say you wasn’t a married man, didn’t you, sir?”

“I didn’t. But I’m not.”

“That’s ’ow it is, you see. You pretty soon gets sick of pulling off good things, if you ain’t got nobody to pat you on the back for doing of it. Why, when I was single, if I got ’old of a sure thing for the three-o’clock race and picked up a couple of quid, the thrill of it didn’t seem to linger somehow. But now, if some of the gentlemen that come ’ere put me onto something safe and I make a bit, ’arf the fascination of it is taking the stuff ’ome and rolling it onto the kitchen table and ’aving ’er pat me on the back.”

“How about when you lose?”

“I don’t tell ’er,” said Mac simply.

“You seem to understand the art of being happy, Mac.”

“It ain’t an art, sir. It’s just gettin’ ’old of the right little woman and ’aving a nice little ’ome of your own to go back to at night.”

“Mac,” said Billie admiringly, “you talk like a Tin Pan Alley song hit, except that you’ve left out the scent of honeysuckle and old Mister Moon climbing up over the trees. Well, you’re quite right. I’m all for the simple and domestic myself. If I could find