Page:Arthur Stringer - Twin Tales.djvu/63

Rh the organized entrenchments that surround young girls, the machinery of service that may shut you in, but at the same time does things for you and gives you something to fall back on when the pinch comes!"

"But I don't understand what you mean by the pinch," Teddie told him, straightening the gardenia that stood so stiff and straight in his coat-lapel. For she liked her Uncle Chandler, and she liked him a lot. And she was a little disturbed by the look of anxiety that had come into his worldly-wise old face.

He stared at her for a moment, shrugged his shoulders, and took up his hat and stick.

"You're all right, Teddie," he announced with decision as he solemnly kissed her on the cheek-bone. "But—but I wish somebody was looking after you when I'm down there being boiled out."

This made Teddie laugh. She not only laughed, but she extended her arms, like a traffic-officer stopping a jay-driver, or a young eagle trying its wings.