“You treat me white, sweetness, and understand me right, and you won’t be sorry for nothing you say.  Drink, Doll, drink to you ‘n’ me—­you ‘n’ me.”

Their bubble-thin glasses met in a tink and a pledge and her ready laughter rose in duet with his.  She caught the lilt of a popular song from, the tenpiece orchestra and sang upward with the tirralirra of a lark, and the group at the adjoining table threw her a shout.  Mr. Fitzgibbons beat a knife-and-fork tattoo on his plate and pinched her cheek lightly, gritting his teeth in a fine frenzy of delight.

“That’s the way to make ’em sit up and take notice, Doll, that’s the way I like ’em.  Live!  As live and frisky as colts!”

An attendant placed a souvenir of the occasion beside her plate—­a white wool bear, upright and with bold bead eyes and a flare of pink bow beneath its chin.

“Oh-h-h!”

“See, Doll, a Teddy bear!  By Gad! a Teddy bear with his arms stretched out to hug her!  Gad! if I was that Teddy I’d hug the daylight out of her, too!  Gad! wouldn’t I!”

Mrs. Violet Smith wafted the bead-eyed toy a kiss, then slapped him sharply sidewise, toppling him in a heap, and her easy laughter mingled with her petulance.

“I wanna big grizzly, Jimmie; a great big brown grizzly bear with a grin.  I wanna big brown grizzly.”

“’Ain’t you got one, Doll?  A little white one with a pink bow.  Here, let’s give him a drink!”

But the petulance grew upon her, nor would she be gainsaid.  “I wanna big brown grizzly—­a great big brown one with a grin.”

“Aw, Doll, look at this little white one—­a classy little white one.  Look at his nose, cutie, made out of a button.  Look, ain’t that some nose!  Look, ain’t—­”

“A big brown one that I can dance with, Jimmie.  I wanna dance.  Gee! who could dance with a little dinky devil like that!  I wanna dance, Jimmie, honest I could dance with a great big brown one if he was big enough.  I—­Gee, I wanna dance.  Jimmie, honest, I could dance with a great big brown one if he was big enough.  I—­Gee!  I wanna dance, Jimmie!  Gee, I wanna—­”

He whacked the table and flashed the twinkle of a wink to the waiter.  “Gad!  Doll, if you look at me with them frisky eyes I—­”

“I wanna bear, Jimmie, a great big brown—­”

“Waiter!”

“A great big brown one, Jimmie, with a grin.  Tell him a great big brown one!”

“Waiter, that ain’t no kind of a souvenir to bring a lady—­a cheap bunch o’ wool like that.  Bring her a great big brown one—­”

“A great big brown one with a grin, tell him, Jimmie.”

“We have no brown ones, sir; only the small white ones for the ladies.”

“Get one, then!  Get out and buy the biggest one they got on Broadway.  Get out and get one then!”

“But, sir, the—­”

“If the stores ain’t open, bust ’em open!  I ain’t the best customer this joint has got not to get service when my lady friend wants to dance with a great big brown bear.  If my lady friend can’t get a great big brown bear—­”