"Hush!" She put her finger quickly to her lips. "He's asleep; whisper."
"Maria," he repeated obediently, in what passed with him as a whisper, but the sound of which rushed whistling down the narrow hall like a deep sea breeze.
"Don't whisper; talk natural," she suggested hurriedly. "Here, come into the front room an' I'll close the door. I'm awful glad to hear your voice, Mr. Barnes, but I do wish you could keep from lettin' all the neighbors hear it."
Once in the room and the door shut, she lost her air of severity, however; he was so tall and strong and had such a way with him that when he opened his arms and smiled so invitingly, she surrendered completely, and allowed him to embrace her with an ardor that completely took her breath away.
"Ha, ha, ha!" he roared gleefully; "maybe this is bad."
"Five days' shore leave. The ship's anchored off Ninety-fifth Street. Say, this ain't so bad, is it?"
"It's, it's mighty nice!" He was so delighted by her admission that he roared again, but her alarmed look sobered him, and lowering his voice as much as possible, he faced her with a look he meant to be one of great severity and determination, a look that he had practiced carefully for the occasion before a little mirror in the ward room of the battleship.
"Ain't you well, Mr. Barnes?" she enquired anxiously.
"Well," he responded indignantly, "why shouldn't I be well? I'm here to get to cases. You've been writing me fine letters lately, Maria, easy to read, and the spelling getting more usual every day."
"But letters ain't no good when folks has really got anything to say. So I'm here to ask when it is going to be?"
"You said you was going to marry me, didn't you?"
"I ain't jiggling," she spoke, with great indignation. "I don't know what jiggling is, but I ain't doin' it."
"I get a month off ther first of May. Let's call it May the second; will yer, Maria?"
"I--I'd love to do it, Mr. Barnes. I'd love to do it awful well, but--but who's to take care of him?"
"I know, but, Maria, don't you think you'd rather take care of me?"
"But him!" Maria was very much in earnest and very anxious for this hero of hers to fully understand. "You know all he's done for me. If it hadn't been for him and his, I'd be just nothing at all, instead of bein' what I am, an' goin' to marry a real high-class man like you. I--I'm afraid you'll have to wait, Mr. Barnes," she added very regretfully. "I'm awfully sorry, but I couldn't leave him all alone!"