High Time by Mary Lasswell Read Free Book Online

the Orphan Home,’ she explained.
    ‘What you need is a good steady man an’ a houseful o’ your own sprouts!’ Mrs. Rasmussen said solemnly.
    ‘Gawd, yes!’ Mrs. Feeley added. ‘Ain’t nothin’ like a good husband an’ a pack o’ house-apes to settle a girl down! You wouldn’t have time to notice no broad shoulders nor no dimpled chins! You’d be too busy changin’ dimpled bottoms!’
    Darleen laughed good-naturedly.
    ‘Just think, my dear: it might resemble you, a lovely golden-haired cherub!’ Miss Tinkham added her powers of persuasion.
    ‘It’s only right I should tell you, my hair wasn’t exactly this color to start out with—I have it touched up with a heavy rinse,’ Darleen confessed.
    ‘Gilding the lily, my dear! And it is certainly most becoming!’ Miss Tinkham was wondering if she should try some heavy rinse again—they had a variety at the Five-and-Ten that was guaranteed to leave the hair dark, sooty, and sultry-looking—utterly irresistible, the envelope said. The last time Miss Tinkham used heavy rinse, most of it had come off on the inside of her white lace picture hat.
    The twins had finished supper and were all ready for their mother to take them home. Darleen was holding them both on her lap. They crawled all over her, swarming like monkeys.
    Suddenly she giggled and said: ‘My goodness! Men are all alike! One of these fellows has roaming hands!’
    One of the twins was apparently seeking further refreshment. The ladies laughed gleefully.
    ‘That’s what you get for bein’ young an’ good-lookin’! They ain’t never tried nothin’ like that on us!’ Mrs. Feeley cackled.
    Just then Lily came in and bundled the boys off in their carriage. The ladies got busy putting supper on the table and Darleen wandered around the front part of the room looking at pictures. She stopped in front of a picture of Kate and Danny.
    Mrs. Feeley came over and explained:
    ‘An’ she used to be our school-teacher!’
    Darleen was impressed.
    ‘An’ that was took right in Jack Dump’s Bar on Broadway, New York! That heavy-set feller leanin’ over talkin’ to ’em is Jack Dumps, the champ hisself!’
    Darleen thought it was Jack Dempsey—in fact, she was sure of it.
    ‘My, they certainly go all the best places an’ know all the best people,’ she sighed admiringly.
    ‘Sure! Why not? Ain’t Danny got a right to be proud with a girl like that for a wife? Any girl that’s got ambition an’ gumption an’ keeps her nose clean can make her husband proud of her—but they gotta be square! Love’s the only business that won’t stand for a partner!’ And Mrs. Feeley looked Darleen right in the eye as she said it.
    ‘There’s a lot in what you say,’ Darleen admitted wistfully. ‘Don’t you suppose she ever gets lonesome when he’s away?’ she asked, pointing at Katy.
    ‘Lonesome?’ Mrs. Feeley said quietly. ‘Lonesome ain’t the word for it! When you love each other like them two does, it takes a bigger word than lonesome! Miss Tinkham knows the right words, but I know what they mean. It’s like the sun forgot to rise and the moon to shine. Just like they died a little bit—till them two get together again! An’ let me tell you the handsomest, best-lookin’ man, the biggest wolf that ever lived, might just as well pack up his traps an’ move on, ’cause he’s gettin’ nowhere fast! He just ain’t about to make no headway! For that girl wouldn’t never know he was alive! I mean she actually wouldn’t know he was on the face o’ the earth. Far as she’s concerned, there ain’t but one man in the world—an’ that’s Danny, God love him! An’ he feels the same, ’enticle way about her!’
    ‘Get a soap-box!’ Mrs. Rasmussen yelled. ‘Or come an’ eat your supper, one!’
    Old Timer came in and Miss Tinkham presented him to Darleen. He bugged his big pop-eyes at her and slicked his white hair down extra flat. By some sleight of hand, he produced and donned a