Page:The Black Camel (IA blackcamel0000earl).djvu/142

Everywhere we have poetry and glamour. The climate breeds happiness and laughter, a natural reflection of the sunlight, the rainbows and the purple hills. Here there are no sunstrokes and no snow. Honolulu has its message of beauty for every heart. As for———”

“Jimmy, what in the world———”

“As for the people, where nature is kind man can not help but be. You will find———”

“I don’t get you, Jimmy.”

“It’s simple enough. I’ve sold this place to fifty thousand tourists, and now I want to sell it to you. As a substitute for grandmother, you see. No doubt she’s a darling, as you say. Maybe I’m not, but I’m young yet. For of course it isn’t just Honolulu I’m selling. I’m thrown in, you know. How about it, Julie? A little bungalow nestling under two mortgages and a bougainvillea vine———”

“You—you mean you love me, Jimmy?” the girl asked.

“Oh, lord—did I omit that line? I shall have to rewrite the whole darn piece. Naturally, I love you. Who wouldn’t? It may not be the most fitting time for me to say all this, but I don’t want you to think that I’ve fallen into the habit of putting things off, just because I live in the lazy latitudes. I’m crazy about you, and before you write grandmother to come down and meet your boat—she might be away trouping anyhow—I want you to give a thought to Hawaii—and to me. Will you do it, Julie?”

She nodded. “I will, Jimmy.”

“That’s good enough for me,” he smiled.

Chan came silently into the room, and the boy stood up. “Well, Charlie, you ready to go along? I let my