“I’m awful,” he said sadly. “I’m diff’runt. I don’t know why I make faux pas. ’Cause I don’t care, I s’pose.” Then, recklessly: “I been smoking too much. I’ve got t’bacca heart.”      

       Myra pictured an all-night tobacco debauch, with Amory pale and reeling from the effect of nicotined lungs. She gave a little gasp.     

       “Oh, Amory, don’t smoke. You’ll stunt your growth!”      

       “I don’t care,” he persisted gloomily. “I gotta. I got the habit. I’ve done a lot of things that if my fambly knew”—he hesitated, giving her imagination time to picture dark horrors—“I went to the burlesque show last week.”      

       Myra was quite overcome. He turned the green eyes on her again. “You’re the only girl in town I like much,” he exclaimed in a rush of sentiment.       “You’re simpatico.”      

       Myra was not sure that she was, but it sounded stylish though vaguely improper.     

       Thick dusk had descended outside, and as the limousine made a sudden turn she was jolted against him; their hands touched.     

       “You shouldn’t smoke, Amory,” she whispered. “Don’t you know that?”      

       He shook his head.     

       “Nobody cares.”      

       Myra hesitated.     

       “I care.”      

       Something stirred within Amory.     

       “Oh, yes, you do! You got a crush on Froggy Parker. I guess everybody knows that.”      

       “No, I haven’t,” very slowly.     

       A silence, while Amory thrilled. There was something fascinating about Myra, shut away here cosily from the dim, chill air. Myra, a little bundle of clothes, with strands of yellow hair curling out from under her skating cap.     

       “Because I’ve got a crush, too—” He paused, for he heard 

 Prev. P 11/248 next