Page:Bad Girl (1929).pdf/223

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Dot laughed into his terrified face. She felt lightheaded, giddy. "I feel fine," she said.

Eddie moved aimlessly about the room. All the way from Long Island, and nothing to do but wait. If only he had caught Edna—but, hell, what did he want Edna for? He needed Dr. Stewart, that's who he needed.

Presently Dot began to sing. Eddie looked at her in astonishment. Delirious? The expression on her face comforted him. She was smiling at him bravely.

"Hurrah, hurrah, we'll sing the jubilee,
Hurrah, hurrah, the flag that sets you free,
So we'll sing the chorus—

"I expect you think I'm crazy, Eddie."

He shook his head, but he looked at her perplexedly. She couldn't explain why she sang. Not wholly. Partly a desire to hearten him. Partly the excitement that demanded an outlet. Partly sheer bravado.

His gaze did not leave her face. She looked so incongruously pretty as she lay there with her ordeal almost upon her. Her cheeks were so glowingly pink, her mouth so red and young. There was a healthy sparkle in her eyes as though it were none of their affair what went on in the rest of Dot's body. Singing in the face of danger, laughing because he looked afraid.

"Bring the good old bugle, boys—"

Dot marching to battle with her eyes a-sparkle and a song on her lips.

"Oh, Eddie, do you remember this?

"It ain't gonna rain no more, no more,
"It ain't gonna rain no more—"

Yes, Eddie remembered it. He remembered the girl who had worn a flame-colored sweater and who had sung in a