"M-m-m!"--sitting on the _chaise-longue_ and sucking inward. He sat down beside her, a shade graver.
"Is my babe disappointed I didn't dig her coat and earrings out of hock?"
"Any one of 'em but you would be hollering for their junk out of pawn. But, Lord, the way she rigs herself up without it! Where'd you dig up the spangles, Babe? Gad! I gotta take you out to-night and buy you the right kind of a dinner. When I walks my girl into a café, they sit up and take notice, all righty. Spangles she rigs herself up in when another girl, with the way my luck's been runnin', would be down to her shimmy-tail."
She stroked his sleeve as if it had the quality of fur.
"Is the rabbit's foot still kicking my boy?"
"Never seen the like, honey. The cards just won't come. This afternoon I even played the wheel over at Chuck's, and she spun me dirt."
"Remember the run of rotten luck you had that year in Cincinnati, when the ponies was runnin' at Latonia?"
"Lost your shirt, hon, and the first day back in New York laid a hundred on the wheel and won me my seal coat. You--we--We couldn't be no lower than that time we got back from Latonia, hon?"
"Come on, Babe. Joe'll be here directly, and then we're going and blow them spangles to a supper."
"Now there's nothin' to worry about, Babe. Have I ever landed anywhere but on my feet? We'll be driving a racer down Broadway again before the winter's over. There's money in motion these wartimes, Babe. They can't keep my hands off it."
"Blutch, how--how much did you drop to-day?
"I could tell clear down on the street you lost, honey, the way you walked so round-shouldered."
"What's the difference, honey? Come; just to show you I'm a sport, I'm going to shoot you and Joe over to Jack's in one of them new white taxi-cabs."
"Well, if you gotta know it, they laid me out to-day, Babe. Dropped that nine hundred hock-money like it was a hot potato, and me countin' on bringin' you home your coat and junk again to-night. Gad! Them cards wouldn't come to me with salt on their tails."
"Nine hundred! Blutch, that--that leaves us bleached!"
"I know it, hon. Just never saw the like. Wouldn't care if it wasn't my girl's junk and fur coat. That's what hurts a fellow. If there's one thing he ought to look to, it's to keep his wimmin out of the game."