She leaned
toward him.
"I knew YOU!" she said.
"Good heavens!" cried Bibbs. "I thought it was your voice coming out
of a star!"
"There's only smoke overhead," said Mary, and laughed again. "There
aren't any stars."
"Oh yes, there were--when you laughed!"
She took his arm, and they went on. "I've come to walk home with you,
Bibbs. I wanted to."
"But were you here in the--"
"In the dark? Yes! Waiting? Yes!"
Bibbs was radiant; he felt suffocated with happiness. He began to
scold her.
"But it's not safe, and I'm not worth it. You shouldn't have--you
ought to know better. What did--"
"I only waited about twelve seconds," she laughed. "I'd just got
here."
"But to come all this way and to this part of town in the dark, you--"
"I was in this part of town already," she said. "At least, I was only
seven or eight blocks away, and it was dark when I came out, and I'd
have had to go home alone--and I preferred going home with you."
"It's pretty beautiful for me," said Bibbs, with a deep breath.
"You'll never know what it was to hear your laugh in the darkness--and
then to--to see you standing there! Oh, it was like--it was like--how
can I TELL you what it was like?" They had passed beyond the crowd
now, and a crossing-lamp shone upon them, which revealed the fact that
again she was without her furs.
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