Page:Frank Owen - Woman Without Love (1949 reprint).djvu/142

 they motored on Long Island. They visited all the most famous eating-places, even as far out as "John Duck's" at Eastport.

Everybody was happy except Jimmy Whale. In his sorrow he turned to Mary Blaine for comfort. The only comfort she gave him was a barbed-wire vest. She shook her head dolefully as she pondered over the problem.

"I can't understand what's happening to Dorothy," she murmured. "She's so wrapped up in this man she almost resembles a bundle."

"I think he's horrible," stormed Jimmy.

Mary couldn't help smiling. "Well he does look like the Hesperus three days after the wreck," she admitted. "I wouldn't say anything to Dorothy about this conversation. It wouldn't be good policy. Still it seems an awful pity that Dorothy would throw herself away on a man old enough to be her father."

"She ought to be thrown away," he snorted, "and she ought to be torn up first."

"I doubt if Ivan would agree with you on that."

"He doesn't agree with me at all. He gives me indigestion." Jimmy paused. "Do you really think they're serious?"

"I really think they are," said she, "unless you step in and cut him out."

"If I step in," he said emphatically, "I'll cut him up. As far as I'm concerned this is the end. If she wants that damn Pole, she can have him."

"He isn't a Pole at all," she broke in. "He's Russian with a dash of Scotch and a skimsion of French."

"He's a Pole-cat!"

"He may be at that."

Jimmy jumped to his feet and seized his hat. "I'm not going to stand in the way of such a swell romance. If she wants him she can have him. I'm through with her. Though personally I'd as soon marry a toad."

"You mean as Dorothy?"

"I mean as Ivan."

"But you couldn't very well marry Ivan. The neighbors