The workmen are
gone and everything is quiet now, Peter. Begin. I am crazy to
get the particular angle from which you 'make the world safe for
democracy.' John used to call our attention to your articles
during the war. He said we had not sent another man to France
who could write as humanely and as interestingly as you did. I
wish I had kept those articles; because I didn't get anything
from them to compare with what I can get since I have a slight
acquaintance with the procession that marches around your mouth.
Peter, you will have to watch that mouth of yours. It's an
awfully betraying feature. So long as it's occupied with
politics and the fads and the foibles and the sins and the
foolishness and the extravagances of humanity, it's all very
well. But if you ever get in trouble or if ever your heart
hurts, or you get mad enough to kill somebody, that mouth of
yours is going to be a most awfully revealing feature, Peter.
You will have hard work to settle it down into hard-and-fast
noncommittal lines."
Peter looked at the girl steadily.
"Have you specialized on my mouth?" he asked.
"Huh-umph!" said Linda, shaking her head vigorously. When I
specialize I use a pin and a microscope and go right to the root
of matters as I was taught. This is superficial. I am
extemporizing now."
"Well, if this is extemporizing," said Peter, "God help my soul
if you ever go at me with a pin and a microscope."
"Oh, but I won't!" cried Linda.
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