They visited the stately National Monument, the Jardin
Anglais, the Hotel de Ville, the Arsenal, the Muse'e Foy, the
Botanic Gardens, and the Athende. He gazed upon the fresh face of
the rebellious young American social mutineer with an increasing
wonder as they wandered alone on the Promenade des Bastions, and
was simply astounded when he vainly tried to take advantage of a
shady corner in the Musee Ariana to steal a kiss from the wayward
girl's rosy lips. Miss Genie "formed herself into a hollow square"
and calmly, but energetically, repulsed him.
"See here! Major Hawke!" she coolly said, "get off the perch! I
don't care for any soft sawder! I'm a pretty good fellow in my way,
but I know how to take care of myself!"
In fact, Major Alan Hawke at last recognized the existence of
a species of womanhood which he had never before met. Miss Genie
was frankly unconventional, and yet she was both hard-headed and
hardhearted. When he carefully dressed himself for the intellectual
feast of Mademoiselle Delande's "refined collation," he dimly
became aware that the role of unpaid bear leader to the Chicago
girl simply amounted to being an unsalaried valet de place! "As for
compromising that devil of a girl," he growled, "she could have
given the snake in the Garden of Eden long odds and beaten him
hollow, in subtlety." This view of the impeccability of the Chicago
epidermis was confirmed later when Hawke returned from the "Institute"
at the decorous hour of ten that evening.
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