Page:Nigger Heaven (1926).pdf/47

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I don't know what you mean, she protested.

Yes, you do too, he went on imperturbably. La Boniface is all right, but apparently she invites a lot of riff-raff to her parties.

I dare say I'm no better than any one else. She could have bitten her tongue out after she had made this priggish remark. What would he think of her?

I dare say none of us is, he responded. It's just a matter of what we like and what we don't like. Now I don't believe you like this.

In drunken despair, Lutie was sobbing now. Lucas, still imitating the ukelele, warbled:

I had some one else before I had you,
And I'll have some one after you're gone;
A sweetheart or street-car don't worry me,
There'll soon be another along.
You needn't stay—
Go any day—
I've got a swinging door in my heart
That swings either way.
I had some one else . . .

Wow! screamed Sylvia. Bottle it, Lucas, for cryin' out loud.

Mary smiled. I don't believe I've met you, she said.

My name's Byron Kasson: he introduced himself. I'm just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Came out here today with a bunch