“And he must remember,” went on Chloe, “to remind me of what I want when I do not know, myself, what I want.”
“You’re rising in the scale,” I said. “What you seem to need is a first-class clairvoyant.”
“And if I say that I am dying to hear a Beethoven sonata, and stamp my foot when I say it, he must know by that that what my soul craves is salted almonds; and he will have them ready in his pocket.”
“Now,” said I, “I am at a loss. I do not know whether your soul’s affinity is to be an impresario or a fancy grocer.”
Chole turned her pearly smile upon me.
“Take less than half of what I said as a jest,” she went on. “And don’t think too lightly of the little things, Boy. Bea paladin if you must, but don’t let it show on you. Most women are only very big children, and most men are only very little ones. Please us; don’t try to overpower us. When we want a hero we can make one out of even a plain grocer the third time he catches our handkerchief before it falls to the ground.”
That evening I was taken down with pernicious fever. That is a kind of coast fever with improvements and high-geared attach-
