"
But with my new puffs on the back of my head, and my letter in my
pocket, I wasn't easy to discourage. Thoburn shouldered his pick and,
headed by Doctor Barnes, the ice-cutters started out in single file.
As they passed the news stand Doctor Barnes glanced at me, and my heart
almost stopped.
"Do they--is it a match?" he asked, with his eyes on mine.
I couldn't speak, but I nodded "yes," and all that afternoon I could
see the wonderful smile that lit up his face as he went out. It made him
almost good-looking. Oh, there's nothing like love, especially if you've
waited long enough to be hungry for it, and not spoiled your taste for
it by a bite here and a piece of a heart there, beforehand, so to speak.
Miss Cobb stopped at the news stand on her way to the gymnasium. She
was a homely woman at any time, and in her bloomers she looked like a
soup-bone. Under ordinary circumstances she'd have seen the puffs from
the staircase and have asked what they cost and told me they didn't
match, in one breath. But she had something else on her mind. She padded
over to the counter in her gym shoes, and for once she'd forgotten her
legs.
"May I speak to you, Minnie?" she asked.
"You mostly do," I said. "There isn't a new rule about speaking, is
there?"
"This is important, Minnie," she said, rolling her eyes around as she
always did when she was excited. "I'm in such a state of ex--I see you
bought the puffs! Perhaps you will lend them to me if we arrange for a
country dance.
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