Page:Minnie Flynn (1925).pdf/52

 crowd outside. They shuffled noisily. A hum rose from a hundred throats.

As Billy shouldered his way through the crowd, Minnie Flynn caught their eye, and a dozen male voices rose above the chorus crying out: "Oh, you chicken! Oh, you cutie cute! Chase me, boys, my hair is red."

"I'd like to smack 'em in the jaw," Billy whispered when they were caught and held in a human pocket, "they're too damn fresh."

"Oh, they ain't so fresh. They don't mean nothin' by it, answered Minnie, smiling to herself as her ears heard only the flash of many compliments. "Don't try to start anything you can't finish, Billy. I'm in no mood for a scrap tonight."

The crowd surged, split like a drilled rock, and Billy and Minnie (Minnie now laughing and kidding the boys) rushed through the swinging doors. There was an annoying pause while Billy struggled to find the tickets, then the doors closed in back of them and they were immersed in another swarming, loud-voiced crowd that filled the entrance hall. What a glare of bright lights, and how hot and feverish the air seemed after the cool of the night! There swirled around the huge chandeliers a filmy gauze of tobacco smoke which was fast lowering in a dense fog.

At every step Minnie's pulses quickened until her tension was almost painful. As she stood in the slow-moving line to check her hat and coat, her eyes peered among the scrambling figures in search of Jimmy. She saw many important looking ushers wearing large red, white and blue badges. The people seemed to respect them, and make way for them. Think of it! Jimmy was an usher. She wondered what he would say when he saw her there. She was certain of one thing: he would be angry because she had cut the yoke out of her dress. Jimmy was a funny kind of a kid, he had queer ideas.