"D'ye know Julia?"

Martin shook his head.

"She's my lady friend," Jim explained, "and she's a peach. I'd introduce
you to her, only you'd win her. I don't see what the girls see in you,
honest I don't; but the way you win them away from the fellers is
sickenin'."

"I never got any away from you," Martin answered uninterestedly. The
breakfast had to be got through somehow.

"Yes, you did, too," the other asserted warmly. "There was Maggie."

"Never had anything to do with her. Never danced with her except that
one night."

"Yes, an' that's just what did it," Jim cried out. "You just danced with
her an' looked at her, an' it was all off. Of course you didn't mean
nothin' by it, but it settled me for keeps. Wouldn't look at me again.
Always askin' about you. She'd have made fast dates enough with you if
you'd wanted to."

"But I didn't want to."

"Wasn't necessary. I was left at the pole." Jim looked at him
admiringly. "How d'ye do it, anyway, Mart?"

"By not carin' about 'em," was the answer.