Page:Delight - de la Roche - 1926.djvu/238

 flask and it had brought the colour to her cheeks and lips and set her blood into motion.

But more effective than the brandy, had been the coming of Jimmy at the moment when her heart cried out for him. Now, simple and trusting, she put the terrible events of the evening behind her, behind her with all frightening remembrances—Perkin—the Heaslips—other things that she did not distinctly recall. With all dark shadows of the past she cast Mrs. Jessop and her followers, and threw herself upon Jimmy's love. Her stalwart young body rebounded quickly as a boy's from the effects of the buffeting and ducking. . . . To be sure, she was a little dizzy, there was a humming in her ears, she had to cling tightly to Jimmy's arm as they walked. Jimmy, too, was feeling a little shaky, after all his excitement and violent exertion.

"O-o, Jimmy, it's good to be together again, isn't it?"

"My own darling girl! I'll never let you out of my sight again, I swear that."

"Don't swear anything, Jimmy. Let's just be good as good, all the rest of our lives, never say one cross word to one another, and never do a single bad thing."

"All right," agreed Jimmy. "I'll try. But you know I've got a quick temper."

"I know you have. You see it was that temper you got into that sent me downstairs crying, and made Mrs. Jessop turn me out and all."

"Yes, I know, darling. But she said she found you in Bastien's room. That was a lie, wasn't it?"

"Well, I was just inside the door. He'd been so sorry to see me crying, he was showing me some little trinkets he'd brought from South Africa to take my mind off my troubles."

"Huh!"