Page:Bambi (1914).djvu/318

292 blood like a cocktail. Bambi breathed deep as she tried to fall in step with her companion.

“I can’t keep step with you. I’m too little and my skirt’s too tight.”

“I’ll keep step with you, my lady.”

“Mercy, don’t try. Jarvis says I hop along like a grasshopper.”

“I resent that. Your free, swaying walk is one of your charms. You always make me think of a wind-blown flower.”

She looked up at him, radiantly.

“Richard, you say the charmingest things!”

“Francesca, you do inspire them.”

“I’m a vain little peacock, and Jarvis never notices how I look.”

“Too bad to mate a peacock and an owl.”

A brilliant sunset bathed the avenue in a red, gold light. The steady procession of motors, taxis, and hansom cabs made its slow way uptown. The shop windows blazed in their most seductive moments. The sidewalks were crowded with smart men; fashionable women swathed in magnificent furs; slim, little pink-cheeked girls. All of them made their way up the broad highroad toward home or tea, as the case might be.