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diff --git a/42692-8.txt b/42692-0.txt index 7b5bab1..55e25ac 100644 --- a/42692-8.txt +++ b/42692-0.txt @@ -1,35 +1,4 @@ -Project Gutenberg's An Idyll of All Fools' Day, by Josephine Daskam Bacon - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: An Idyll of All Fools' Day - -Author: Josephine Daskam Bacon - -Illustrator: R. M. Crosby - -Release Date: May 11, 2013 [EBook #42692] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN IDYLL OF ALL FOOLS' DAY *** - - - - -Produced by Elaine Laizure from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries. - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42692 *** An Idyll of All Fools' Day @@ -2455,364 +2424,4 @@ youth and love and laughter. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: An Idyll of All Fools' Day - -Author: Josephine Daskam Bacon - -Illustrator: R. M. Crosby - -Release Date: May 11, 2013 [EBook #42692] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN IDYLL OF ALL FOOLS' DAY *** - - - - -Produced by Elaine Laizure from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries. - - - - - - -</pre> - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42692 ***</div> <h1>An Idyll of All Fools' Day </h1> @@ -2816,385 +2778,6 @@ youth and love and laughter. </p> <img alt='Illustration' src='images/44_page_120.jpg' /> </div> - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Idyll of All Fools' Day, by -Josephine Daskam Bacon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN IDYLL OF ALL FOOLS' DAY *** - -***** This file should be named 42692-h.htm or 42692-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/6/9/42692/ - -Produced by Elaine Laizure from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries. - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - -</pre> - +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42692 ***</div> </body> </html> diff --git a/42692.txt b/42692.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f565568..0000000 --- a/42692.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2818 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's An Idyll of All Fools' Day, by Josephine Daskam Bacon - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: An Idyll of All Fools' Day - -Author: Josephine Daskam Bacon - -Illustrator: R. M. Crosby - -Release Date: May 11, 2013 [EBook #42692] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN IDYLL OF ALL FOOLS' DAY *** - - - - -Produced by Elaine Laizure from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries. - - - - - - -An Idyll of All Fools' Day - - - -An Idyll of All Fools' Day - - - -By Josephine Daskam Bacon - -Author of "Memoirs of a Baby," "The Madness of Philip," etc. - - - -_With numerous illustrations_ - -By R. M. Crosby - - - -New York - -Dodd, Mead and Company 1908 - - - - - -Copyright, 1908, by The Phillips Publishing Co. - -Copyright, 1908, by Dodd, Mead & Company - -_Published, October, 1908_ - - - -To A. A. B. - -this bit of busy nonsense - -is dedicated. - -J. D. B. - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - -"Only her shriek of terror saved them from the stone wall" (p, 47) -Frontispiece - -Facing page "'Here we are at last, Nette dear, dressed in our best -for you!'" - -"'On the right,' he began didactically" - -"The red-headed boy bounded beside them, whooping madly" - -"At the risk of losing his straight course he stole a rapid glance -at her" - -"'Jump! Jump!' he cried hoarsely" - -"'Well, here we are!' he said tentatively" - -"Nette, wringing her hair and murmuring incoherent abnegations" - -"'Mademoiselle,' he began, 'you are--you are--' he paused, for -genuine lack of words" - -"'This gentleman here will take you down directly'" - - - -THE ESCAPE - -I. - -THE ESCAPE - -'TWAS a bloomy morning, all crocuses and tree buds, and Antony -sniffed it into his nostrils thankfully, even while he scowled. - -"Come, come!" said his Uncle Julius, a wealthy old gentleman -buttoned firmly into a white vest, "what a face! It is nothing so -terrible that I ask of you! One would think it a hanging matter, to -beau a pretty young girl about the place!" - -"You know that I do not care for schoolgirls, Uncle Julius," said -Antony severely. - -"Fiddlestick!" his Uncle Julius cried, "and what are you sir, but a -school boy, I should like to know? What shall we hear next, I -wonder?" - -Antony put on some fresh grey gloves with a sigh. - -"Schoolgirl! Schoolgirl!" his uncle repeated mimickingly, "she -will not be reciting her lessons, I suppose!" - -Antony buttoned his gloves. - -"Or if she does, it will be your fault, sir," pursued his uncle. - -Antony selected a slender walking stick from a rack of many, and -reviewed his collar with a critical hand. - -"The young lady's topics of conversation will be a matter of -indifference to me, Uncle Julius," said he, "I assure you." - -"And I assure _you_," cried Uncle Julius, "that if we were not on -this open porch, I should be strongly tempted to apply that stick -of yours where, as we used to say, it would do the most good!" - -Antony adjusted his coat trimly and started down the steps. - -"But since we are upon this open porch, let us, Uncle Julius," -said he, "go where duty calls us. _En avant!_" - -He strode along the flagged walk with Uncle Julius puffing behind -him, loquaciously indignant. - -"Look at your mates, sir, as we pass them, and notice how enviously -they smile," he urged the youth, who replied shortly that he -observed them. - -"In my time, I can tell you," said Uncle Julius, "there was no -shilly shallying in these matters. We had more blood. Let any -college lad be given a free day--and a fine day, too--and one of -the prettiest girls that ever wore a petticoat to enjoy It with -him, and he was the envy of all his fellows. And I believe," he -ended with a fine optimism, "that it is so now! Not one of these -lads but would change places with you at a nod." - -"But you will not -nod, my dear Uncle Julius," Antony responded -calmly, "and so these lads--as you so felicitously call them--will -never lose the opportunity I would cheerfully relin----" - -"Hush! there she is!" his uncle whispered, and Antony at once -removed his hat with a lordly and accomplished gesture, which Uncle -Julius noted with unwilling admiration. - -"Well, here we are!" he said, with an attempt at prankish levity in -which he received no assistance from Antony. "Here we are at last, -Nette dear, dressed in our best for you!" - -"So I see. And this is, I suppose, your young nephew, Mr. Julius?" -said the person at whose face Antony had not yet looked. - -If she had intended to remedy this omission she could not have -devised a more efficacious means. Not only did Antony look at her: -he stared. From the topmost strand of her braided chestnut hair to -the lowest dimple In her olive cheek--for she was of that -irritatingly attractive class of females that combines deep-set -violet eyes with a gipsy colouring--every curve of her audacious -body spelled youth, unmitigated youth, and her tone was -correspondingly insulting. - -"I am truly pleased to meet you," he said with the air of one to -whom experience has lent tolerance. - -"I should truly never have guessed it," she returned promptly with -an amused smile. - -Antony flushed. An impudent chit, this. A girl to be taught her -place, and that right early. - -"I am to have, I believe," he said, with a fine air of disregard -for any previous conversation, "the honour of escort--of show--of, -er, of entertaining you for the day." - -"That distinction is indeed yours," she replied gravely, "I have no -doubt that I shall be escort--show--er, entertained most -agreeably." - -With this insulting remark she but half concealed a yawn and -Antony's blood boiled within him. - -"Come," chirped Uncle Julius with a fatuous chuckle, "we are -getting along famously! What did I tell you? Yes, indeed!" - -To this idiotic speech neither his nephew nor that nephew's new -acquaintance made any further reply than two eloquent but totally -ineffective glances. They were ineffective because the glance -as a medium of expression had not been included in Uncle Julius's -aesthetic training. - -"And what are you going to do first, hey? Where does the great day -begin--see the town sights, I suppose?" this Imbecile old relative -maundered on. - -"It will give me great pleasure, if she wishes to see them," said -Antony coldly, "to point out the various objects of local interest -to Miss----" - -"Good gracious!" Uncle Julius interrupted, "what's come over the -boy? 'Miss,' indeed! Didn't I tell you that this is my old -godmother's own daughter's stepdaughter? 'Miss!' Her name is -Nette." - -"Ah," said Antony. - -"And his," continued Uncle Julius, with a flip of his finger at his -nephew and a wink at the young lady, "is Tony. Let's have no -formality among chicks of your age. No, no; Tony's his name." - -"Indeed!" the young lady observed, gazing critically at the -embarrassed possessor of the cognomen, "and a quaint little name, I -am sure." - -She smiled with a perfunctory brightness and continued in some -inexplicable manner to look down at her escort--though had she been -presented with ten thousand dollars for every one of the inches -over five feet in her height she would not have appeared before the -world as any considerable heiress. The object of this remarkably -achieved envisagement writhed inwardly. Uncle Julius rubbed his -hands in maudlin delight at her appreciation of his nephew's -baptismal acquirements, and she continued, prettily stifling a -second yawn between her white little pointed teeth: - -"Since our young friend naturally pants to show us the beauties of -his Alma Mater, let us by all means begin with them," _and get them -over_, said the strangled yawn. - -Antony bit his tongue in his seething rage and the pain turned him -crimson and wet-eyed. This did not escape the intolerable chit and -her deep-set violet eyes twinkled maliciously. - -"It will not be at all necessary to see"--he began, when Uncle -Julius's round, astonished eyes interrupted them. - -"He is not going to show 'us' at all," explained this worthy -but misguided man, "he is going to show you, my dear. I knew all -these sights well forty years ago. Dear, dear! yes, indeed." - -Antony could have choked him for the apprehension that passed over -his young charge's face. - -"You will not desert me, Mr. Julius?" she cried with a melting -glance that visibly warmed the cockles of his infatuated old heart, -"you can't mean to leave me"--_to the awkward attentions of this -red faced boy!_ her eyebrows continued the appeal, intelligible -only to Antony. - -"But that's just what I do mean, Miss Nette," he assured her, -winking incredibly, "I am this moment due at my trustees' meeting. -I'm off directly. You must"--and he flapped his hand with airy -abandon--"endure the time without me!" - -Here he smiled with disgusting coquetry and pattered like a plump -white rabbit down the shady brick path. As they stared blankly -after him he turned and waved his stick at them. - -"Oh, I'm no spoil-sport!" he crowed, and rounded his corner. They -were left alone. - -"Silly old ass!" Antony muttered, and then glared angrily at -the spot the buxom gentleman had quitted. - -"I beg your pardon?" said the young lady, "did you speak?" - -"Not to you," he replied briefly. She shook out a fluffy white -parasol and under its becoming shadow looked curiously about her. - -"Indeed--to whom, then," she inquired. - -Antony was silent. - -"Minx!" he thought. - -"You are not at all like your uncle, are you?" she began, after a -moment of this pregnant silence. Then after another moment she -added absently, "he has such pleasant, easy manners!" - -Antony settled his fleckless straw hat firmly upon his head and -tightened his grip on his stick. - -"My uncle," he began with great control, "is an estimable man. His -intentions are of the best--that is to say, I have always believed -them to be--but like too many others he does not always carry out -his intentions. Take, for instance, this present situation. It was -evidently his intention to give you (and me) a pleasurable day. It -is quite obvious to me, at least, that he has failed in his -intention--to a certain extent," he added politely, for he had -by now talked himself into his usual superior calm. His eyes were -fixed upon the tip of the young lady's parasol, some distance below -him, as she sat on the brick steps of the old porch before which he -stood, her slender figure leaning against a white pillar. - -"Now, I have a suggestion to make," he continued, quite pleasantly -by this time. "I can plainly see that my uncle's somewhat -Philistine scheme for my showing you about the place is likely to -bore you extremely. Let us, then, omit that part of the programme -altogether. We must try to think of something that will attract -you, however," Antony had by this time a fairly paternal interest -in the young lady, "and if you will help me out, no doubt we can. -Perhaps," he concluded tentatively, "you would really prefer to -remain by yourself, and not be entertained at all?" - -He paused, and as no reply appeared to be forthcoming, slowly -lowered his eyes along the fluffy parasol till they reached the -level of those deep-set violet ones. He could not have recognised -them by their colour, however, for they were closed; the gentle -rise and fall of the young lady's breast, the placid and -uncharacteristic kindness of her half-smile made the reason -for this closing only too obvious. She was sleeping. - -Antony swallowed hard. Sheer rage choked him and his collar became -intolerably tight. His fingers itched along the supple stick he -carried and a longing to employ it in an absolutely unheard of -manner nearly flooded him off his feet. "Where it would do the most -good"--the obnoxious phrase flashed luminously across his mind. - -The sudden silence had its natural effect upon the young person on -the brick steps. Slowly, inquiringly, her eyelids lifted, and the -peculiar, rain-washed effect of those dark blue eyes, so startling -above her olive cheeks, was not lost upon Antony. - -"Not entertained at all?" she repeated vaguely, diving under the -ruffles of the parasol to cover the positively unconcealable -paroxysm of the third yawn, "oh, on the contrary! Really. I am -delightfully entertained, Mr.--Mr. Tony!" - -"So it appears," he returned acidly. A soft dark colour suffused -her gipsy cheeks, but she brazened it out. She seemed to possess no -sense of shame whatever. - -"This sun makes one almost sleepy," she said calmly, "and I sat up -quite late last night, too--playing picquet with your uncle. He is -a poor sleeper." - -"Indeed. I am not acquainted with his habits," Antony responded. -"We will look at the buildings now, I think, if you are -sufficiently rested." A fell purpose had suddenly found itself in -his humiliated breast. This insolent young puss should have cause -indeed for drowsiness. - -She sprang instantly to her feet with a quick and pleasing muscular -co-ordination, which, again, was not lost upon Antony. She wore a -white flannel costume dotted with a dull blue--the blue of Canton -china. Of this colour, too, was the silk stocking that flashed down -the steps above her low-cut shoes. A ludicrous and daring colour -for a brunette--until you encountered her eyes. - -"I am quite ready," she said demurely, and Antony started briskly -down the street. - -"On the right," he began didactically, "you will see Wadsworth -Hall, the building of applied sciences. It was presented by the two -sons of Mr. Ezra Bement Wadsworth in memory of their father, a -prominent graduate. It cost three hundred thousand dollars and is -one of the most completely equipped buildings of its kind in the -country, I believe." - -"How interesting!" she murmured. - -"Yes," Antony agreed, "it _is_ interesting." - -"To what are the sciences applied?" she inquired placidly. - -"To--er, to--really, I have never gone into it so far as that," -Antony returned, biting his lip, "I am not interested in science -myself. But that is what it is generally called: it is on a bronze -tablet on the corner. It is probably only an expression." - -"Ah, yes, probably," she assented. - -"Beyond it and a shade to the left you will see," he continued, -with a wave of his stick, "Mansfield Hall. It is a dormitory, -occupied by sophomores." - -"And who presented that?" his companion inquired, gazing -respectfully at the end of his stick. - -"I do not know," he informed her briefly. - -"Oh, you do not know," she repeated in her low voice. Something in -the falling inflection caused her guide to wriggle uneasily. - -"Nobody knows," he added, rashly. "I should think nobody would want -to, it is so hideous." - -"To be sure," she said. "And sophomores live there. Are you perhaps -a sophomore, Mr. Tony?" - -"I?" Antony exclaimed; then in level tones, "I am a senior." - -"Really!" she murmured. "I suppose that means that you are one of -the older pupils, then? In the first class?" - -"It does," he assented grimly, adding as a cutting afterthought, "a -sophomore, I suppose, would be beneath your notice?" - -She smiled sweetly. "Oh, dear me, no!" she assurred him, "not in -the least--it is all the same to me, you see, Mr. Tony!" - -Antony should have realised by this time the folly of any further -tilting, but he did not. - -"Your interest naturally turns, then, to men of my uncle's age?" he -inquired caustically. - -She considered this with a pretty seriousness. - -"N-no, hardly that," she said at length. "It is only that I do not-- -that I am not--somehow, young men (_and such very young men!_ her -eyes added) do not exactly . . ." - -"You need not trouble to explain yourself any further," Antony -broke in coldly. "It is somewhat unfortunate," he continued, -enunciating carefully, with averted eyes, "that I, of all people, -should have been selected for your escort this morning." - -He had never said anything so nearly rude to a woman; but then he -had never to his recollection been so thoroughly annoyed by one, -since the dimly distant days when a series of deprecating aunts and -spying nurses had darkened his youthful horizon. - -"Indeed. And why is that?" she asked pleasantly. She had, when she -chose, an exceedingly pleasant manner. - -"Because," he returned, astonished at himself, but firm -nevertheless, "I am not sufficiently accustomed to the society of -young ladies to be certain of my ability to entertain even the -ordinary variety--much less those who prefer the society of -eccentric old gentlemen." _Come_, he reflected, _that's not half -bad. Perhaps that will teach her a thing or two!_ - -It seemed to him that there was a flash of respect in her eyes, but -he could not be sure, it was so fleeting. - -"I suppose your studies take up so much of your time that you have -no leisure for society," she said kindly, "but you must not let -yourself grow shy: ladies are not very difficult to entertain, -really!" - -To this remark Antony made no reply, perhaps because he could not -think of one which combined the expression of his feelings with -anything remotely resembling propriety. They walked on, therefore, -in utter silence. - -The village through which they took their way was but a tiny one, a -green and sheltered cradle for the warm brick walls and lichened -chapel of the old college; and soon the grass-grown flagged walk -gave way to one of trodden earth, the houses grew sparser and -smaller, the trees thicker and less carefully tended. They were in -the country. The season was well forward: though the calendar -marked April, the warm blue sky, the odorous earth, the fresh, -full grass, all smelled of May. The early flowers were out long -before their wonted times; the birds, misled by the generous sun, -were already nesting musically; shock-headed urchins, those most -delicate barometers of the real seasons, had bravely cast off their -shoes and stockings and renewed the year in the splashing puddles -of some recent rain. All the scene spoke peace and promise of -better to come--all, I say, but those two fractious young souls who -walked diverse among the lovely unity of the pleasant world about -them. Antony strode on, his eyes fixed on the winding road, though -it is to be doubted if he saw it. Who would have thought to find -him, Antony, in such a baited, hot-necked frame? The day had gone -hideously awry from the beginning, and it was all the fault of this -blue-eyed, brown-cheeked chit. - -She, for her part, moved easily and it must be admitted, -gracefully, beside him. Her step shot out from the hip, elastic as -a boy's; only the faintest shade of red under her skin confessed to -the pace he drove her; she drew regular breaths, through her small -nostrils. Though she could not match his stride, she yet fell into -a sort of rythmical accompaniment to it; evidently she was an -accomplished and enduring dancer. - -They swung around a sharp corner under a great sprawling oak and -fairly mowed down an unattractive red-headed boy, insufficiently -attired and freckled beyond belief, who was hurrying frantically in -a direction only too obviously opposed to their own. Conscious of a -distinct relief at the necessity for constructive action, Antony -stooped and raised the howling and resentful creature, who dug his -grimy knuckles into his eyes and yelled the louder at each polite -query as to his injuries. After a few minutes of this -fruitless performance, Antony, irritated at his failure to bring -even this sordid incident to a triumphant conclusion, was about to -produce a coin and leave his victim to the sovereign solace of -Time, that great healer, when his companion, who had stood, -hitherto, discreetly aside from the business, now stepped forward -and laid a small brown hand on the heaving shoulder of the injured -infant. - -"Where were you going, Bubby?" she asked abruptly. - -He looked up from his bent and screening arm, stared a moment, and -replied in a matter-of-fact tone, without a trace of the sobs that -still echoed about them: - -"To see the big snake!" - -"The snake?" She shuddered involuntarily. Had the child mentioned -Leviathan, the monster would not have seemed more exotic to this -rural and domestic spot. By judicious questioning they elicited -from the suddenly secretive imp the successive facts of the -spectacular and recent arrival of an enormous foreign reptile; its -display under a tent on the outskirts of the village, very near -their present station; the establishment of a tariff of -fifteen cents for one view, or two separate opportunities for -excitement at the comparatively small sum of a quarter of a dollar; -and lastly, the cruel certainty that the delay occasioned by this -unexpected and sudden meeting had undoubtedly cost their informant -his only possible view of the monster, since the price of his -admission, though offered voluntarily by his maternal uncle, was -contingent upon his arrival at the tent ahead of his cousin, who, -in case of a previous appearance, was to receive the prize. - -Overcome afresh by the bitterness of his lot, the red-headed boy -would have renewed his unpleasant and gulping demonstrations, had -not Antony hastily produced a coin of sufficient size to insure two -periods of ecstasy and offered it in reparation for what he -handsomely described as his clumsiness. Staggered by this princely -generosity, the urchin balanced the silver piece doubtfully, then -with a shy and unlooked-for courtesy suggested that they should use -it together. - -"And what should I do, then?" asked the young lady with a smile--I -have mentioned that she had, when she saw fit to employ it, an -exceedingly pleasant manner. - -The boy hesitated. - -"Girls don't like snakes," he finally mumbled; "you could wait -outside!" - -"Where is that tent?" she demanded indignantly, and they hurried -on, one on each side of their unconscious guide. No kindly -premonition laid a thrilling chill along Antony's stiff spine; no -wholesome doubts as to the successful issue of that doomed -expedition slowed the springing step of his companion. They hurried -on, I say, each with a hand upon the earth-stained, ragged shoulder -of that freckled imp whom Fate had selected as the instrument of -their destiny, and in ironic rivalry they literally urged him on, -and shot him, panting, through the roped enclosure that protected -the elect possessors of the admission price from contact with the -envious herd. - -With the curt direction to their guide to invite, if he pleased, a -friend to enter with him, Antony slapped down a coin on the -improvised counter, received two greasy green cardboard slips and -strode towards the canvas flap of the small tent. The mingled odour -of tobacco smoke, crushed grass, and tethered horses, the cheerful, -chattering crowd, the honk and blare of a great claret-coloured -motor-car, hurtling inquiringly up the slope, all imparted a festival -air, a holiday spirit; and it was with a mild excitement that Antony -pushed into the close tent, clearing the way punctiliously for his -companion. - -In the middle, under the opening, was a standard painted a dull, -forbidding red, and on this, in a cage of twisted iron, lay a -monstrous, coiled thing, hideously and brilliantly mottled, his -blunt, flattened head lazily resting on his topmost ring, his -malignant, weary eyes fixed in a listless stare, that drooped over -the human mushrooms around him, over the seas he had travelled, -back to the old gods and the beginnings of things. The inked -diamonds along his great length gleamed in a dreadful, supple -pattern; the eye, entranced in a seductive terror, followed the -massive rounds of those murderous coils, longing, yet dreading, to -trace them to their horrid head: it seemed that a faint, uncanny -odour, a hint of dead spices, like the secret wrapping cloths of -old mummies, hung in the air. Now Antony knew, or supposed he knew, -that cobras exhale no such odour, and in a disgusted curiosity he -peered about for the source of it, but found nothing in the stained -and faded tent, nor any nook or cranny in the obvious bareness -where the source of it could lurk. - -The scene was a strange one; no officious showman called attention, -in a raucous voice, to the ugly thing in the middle. There appeared -to be no director, no advertisement of any kind, no appeal to a -credulous or morbid crowd. The tent could contain but a score of -visitors simultaneously, and they pushed in, fairly quiet as soon -as they had entered, slowly encircled the scornful, wicked-eyed -heap on the standard, discussed it in low tones and went out -through another flap to make room for the next group. Indeed, the -accustomed ease with which they performed these evolutions awoke in -Antony the wonder whether they had not rehearsed them many times, -and he involuntarily mentioned this idea to the girl, who gazed, at -once fascinated and repelled, as Eve at the Seducer. - -"I suppose," she returned musingly, "they keep coming to see if it -will by any chance bite some one." - -At this precise moment there pushed through the entrance-flap one -who by his distinctive dress showed himself the mechanician of the -claret-coloured motorcar. He was as obviously a foreigner, and -among the simple rural types that filled the tent his mustachioed -personality stood out as startlingly as the great cobra's. Elbowing -his way through the little crowd he made himself a place directly -beside Antony and the freckled boy, who had attached himself -definitely to his patron, and smiled at the young man in easy -cosmopolitan contempt of the rustics, conveying at the same time, -In a graphic Continental hint of respectful salutation, his -duty to the young lady. Antony accepted the smile with a lordly -nod, expressive of his familiarity with mechanicians as a class and -his appreciation of their place in the general scheme of things, -and the two men surveyed the reptile in silence. - -"I know heem well," volunteered the big fellow in the leather suit, -at last. - -"_C'est Monsieur le Cobra_, zat one. We have take ze car all -s'rough 'is country. Wait--I will amuse Mademoiselle. Watch heem!" - -Lowering his head till the great goggles on his cap fronted the -slitted eyes in the cage he emitted a long, piercing hiss, a nerve -racking, whistling call. Everyone in the tent jumped backward -spasmodically; Antony threw out his arm and pushed the girl behind -him before he realised that there was no danger. - -Upon the great snake the effect of the sudden noise was even -more appalling. His ugly flat head appeared suddenly high above -his writhing folds; no one saw the movement, for it was too -lightning-quick for sight, but it was undoubtedly the fact that -his head was no longer pillowed. The symmetrical turban on his -forehead puffed and quivered, his cold eye caught every eye -in the tent with a swift, horrible glance; and every eye shrank, -terrified, from his. - -"A very unpleasant old party, that snake," Anthony remarked, "I -trust our friend won't think it advisable to repeat----" - -In the middle of his sentence the Frenchman hissed again. The -cobra, irritated beyond further endurance, threw its massive weight -against the side of the cylindrical cage, which swayed slightly and -then dropped forward into the panic-stricken crowd. - -Antony felt a soft, sighing breath on his neck and caught his -companion as she fell; he heard the ribs of her fluffy parasol -crack under somebody's stamping feet and braced himself to meet the -crushing, struggling rush of the frightened crowd. Through the -oaths and shrieks of the nightmare moment piped shrill the voice of -the red-headed boy. - -"Mister, the cover's on! The cover's on tight." - -Between the grovelling legs of two infuriated men, fighting -like demons for leeway from the horrid cage, Antony caught a -glimpse of it and realised that it was, indeed, completely -fastened. Though it rolled and bounded under the lashings of its -excited occupant, it was securely padlocked, and another moment of -frenzied struggle for the door-flaps emptied the tent sufficiently -to give passage to two angry men who threw a heavy canvas over the -cage and righted it, breathing hard. - -One of these as he rose to his feet met Antony's eyes, shifted his -gaze to the fainting girl on his arm, and thrust his hand into the -capacious pocket of his flapping linen coat. - -"Try her with this," he said shortly, "I've got the crowd to -settle. Then we'll kill the Frenchy, and then we'll leave!" - -Antony forced the offered flask into the girl's mouth and -dragged her backward through the open flap. As the air reached her -she gasped and choked, gulping down the strong spirit nervously, -then stiffening herself in his arm and adjusting her hat. - -"Your town is not dull, at any rate, Mr. Tony!" she observed, and -the observation, though a little breathless, was almost perfectly -under her control. - -Antony felt his admiration rise into his eyes, nor did he seek to -conceal it. - -"You are a brave, sensible--for heaven's sake, what's the matter -now?" he cried anxiously, staring at a point behind her. -Involuntarily she turned and looked in the same direction. - -The greater part of the crowd had scattered and fled far down the -long hill; only a few groups of the most hardy and venturesome -among the villagers remained at varying distances from the deserted -tent. The most important of these groups now fell apart slightly, -disclosing as its centre a large and writhing human figure, prone -on the grass. The light box coat, the great goggles, proclaimed -this figure the ill-fated mechanician. Even as he sprawled and -twisted, the men who surrounded him turned and looked at -Antony and his companion, and there was an unpleasant fixity, an -unmistakable threatening, in their regard that chilled the young -gentleman slightly, though he was utterly at a loss as to its -import. Presently one of the men caught his eye and beckoned -commandingly. - -"They seem to want me over there," he said to the girl, with an -attempt at unconcern, "perhaps I'd better step over a moment--I'll -return immediately. You don't object?" - -She looked at him with a curious vague smile, then shook her head -slowly. This he took for acquiescence to his request, and as she -said nothing, he left her and joined the group about the prostrate -foreigner. She stared idly at him, but appeared little -impressed by his irritated and repeated pantomimic denials of what -was, to judge from the faces of the men, a grave charge of some -sort. Even when he threw off a hand on his arm and hastened angrily -back to her, his countenance dark with angry concern, she did not -alter that vague smile, and this vexed him still further, as he -began to explain their situation. - -"I am very, very sorry Miss--Miss Nette," he began, his voice -fairly trembling with irritation, "but a most absurd and disgusting -complication has arisen. This French fellow swears he has been -bitten, and they think he is accusing you of hissing at the snake. -I don't think he is really such a cad as all that, but he is -practically hysterical, and now I don't believe he knows what he is -saying. There is certainly some mark on his wrist and one of the -men says that he saw the snake's head touch him, and they have -filled him so thoroughly with whisky that he really is not -responsible for what he says. I think,"--he marvelled at her lack -of fright or emotion of any kind--"indeed, I am sure, that they have -merely misunderstood his broken French, but these people are so -idiotically obstinate, you know. They've sent for a doctor, -and they insist that they hold--me responsible, and that if we -don't stay here quietly they'll--in short, I don't see what to do. -I'm dreadfully sorry." - -He paused, ready for reproaches, for tears, for rebellion. But none -of these was apparent. - -"How silly!" said Nette carelessly, glancing a moment at the group -of men. - -Antony felt slightly relieved, but only slightly. - -"I'm afraid that it can be made quite disagreeable, however," he -explained gently, "though it is silly. The fellow deserved to be -bitten--if he is, which I'm not at all certain of," he interjected -hastily, "and it's none of our business and all his fault; but I've -tried everything--bribing and bullying--and we seem to be caught -here. I regret it so much--as soon as we can get to my uncle, it -will be all right, of course, but nobody here will take a message -for me and--and I think perhaps it will make less publicity and -fuss, you know, if we go quietly with--with whoever they ask us to -and . . ." - -He ground his teeth--if only he had been alone! He saw himself the -butt of the whole college, nick-named for eternity, blamed by his -uncle, that bulwark of convention, self-disgraced by reason of -utter, crude failure in this, the greatest social crisis of his -life. It was maddening, humiliating--and this thick-skinned, -feather-headed girl by his side seemed absolutely indifferent to -her (to say the least) embarrassing situation. Stealing a glance at -her he perceived that she was still smiling. Nay, more, she now -directed the smile straight at him, and though its warm brightness -cheered him irrationally for a moment, it was for a moment only, -and the gloom of their plight shut round him again as he caught the -eye of the leader of the hostile group beyond. - -Suddenly he felt a tug at his coat, turned to see the gleaming red -head of the author of all his woes, and seized him by the arm with -a confused idea of vengeance. - -"The doctor's coming, mister, he's nearly got here!" panted this -unconscious instrument of Fate, "and I'll bet that foreign man -dies! I'll bet he does! He got a terrible bite! Did you see it?" - -Antony throttled the boy hastily and looked apprehensively at his -companion; he had hoped to spare her this. To his surprise she -turned to the child and laughed lightly. - -"Oh, dear, no!" she said, "he won't die, little boy. Chauffeurs -don't die--they explode!" - -Antony had a sense of moral shock. This passed frivolity. Really, -the girl was scarcely human; sympathy was wasted on her. - -"Did you know the sheriff was coming?" the freckled-faced imp -pursued, after a mildly contemptuous stare at his patron's -incomprehensible friend. "I wouldn't go with him, if I was you. My -uncle says he's got no right to make you." - -"Of course he's got no right," Antony exclaimed angrily, "but what -can I do about it? I can't fight eight or ten men, can I? I'd -rather go than be carried." - -"Why don't you jump into that automobile?" the boy asked abruptly. -"I would. She goes easy--I saw him start her up before. She'll -whizz off, I'll bet you!" - -The girl turned abruptly. "That's it!" she cried; "let's do that, -Mr. Tony!" - -In a flash he caught the practical possibility of the scheme. Once -at his uncle's and the affair was finished. But common sense gave -pause. - -"I can't run the thing," he admitted with vexation, "I don't know -the first thing about them." - -"Oh, that's nothing--they run themselves!" she said competently, -"I'm used to them. Hurry--here comes a man, now!" - -It was indeed the fact that a burly, self-satisfied creature was -advancing towards them, and Antony's blood boiled at the pompous -rustic's meaning glance. - -"Come, come, Mr. Tony!" she urged excitedly. - -"Can you run?" he muttered desperately, "it's no good if you can't, -you know." - -"Of course I can," she replied, and he noted how different the -tones of her voice had grown, how much richer and more alluring. "I -can beat you to the car! Come!" - -The freckled boy plucked at his coat urgingly, and in a moment, as -one flees in dreams, he was dashing down the slight slope that led -to the little tableland at the head of the steeper hill where the -huge car stood, pointed towards freedom. - -A hoarse, suety cry issued from the constable, answered by the -farther group; a number of men rushed hastily in their direction, -but no one seemed to realise the object of their flight and the way -was left clear. The red-headed boy bounded beside them, -whooping madly; Nette's pale skirt flashed valiantly a trifle ahead -of them; the loose stones rolled under their flying feet. - -With a light bound the girl dropped on the wide leather seat, and -Antony tumbled in after her, an agile village boy almost at his -heels. Even as it was, this boy would have seized him had not the -freckled arbiter of their destinies dexterously tripped him, -grinning derisively at his downfall as he dashed to the side of the -car and panted: - -"Let her go, mister, let her go!" - -Mechanically Antony grasped the steering wheel as he had seen -others grasp it and turned to his companion. But she had toppled -breathless against his shoulder and huddled there motionless. He -stared helplessly at the approaching pursuit--his head whirled. - -"Here, I'll pull it!" cried the red-headed urchin and fumbled -mysteriously at Antony's feet. A low, raucous buzzing began -forthwith, and as three men dashed up to them triumphantly, the -great car shuddered a moment and lurched down the hill, gathering -speed with every quarter-second. - -There flashed before Antony's eyes a quick panorama of the extended -Frenchman, the kneeling doctor, the threatening men; his ears -resounded with the gleeful cackle of that freckled Fate who had -launched them, and then he faced an empty country road, silent but -for the whirring of their chariot. He turned his face to the girl, -unconsciously moving the simple steering apparatus so as to keep -the car in the middle of the road, while he spoke. - -"May I trouble you to take this now?" he said politely. "Your -knowledge of this business has undoubtedly saved you a great deal -of mortifying bother and delay." - -She stiffened sensibly beside him, and in her voice he caught no -hint of the momentary rich abandon that he had noticed at the -beginning of their flight, for she spoke with the cool and airy -dryness of their first meeting. - -"My knowledge?" she repeated, with an obviously sincere surprise, -"my knowledge? What do you mean? Why should I take it? I never -handled a car in my life!" - -Antony's fingers stiffened and grew damp against the wheel. For a -few sick seconds he sat utterly silent, stunned and incredulous, -not knowing what he did, while his hands, with a strange muscular -memory all their own of the days when he had propelled a -little mechanical velocipede steered by a wheel, kept the whirring -vehicle in the centre of the long, empty road. - -"Good heavens!" he muttered at last, "I thought you told me--you -certainly said--I understood you--oh, the devil!" - -"Put your foot on something!" Nette cried feverishly; "that's the -way they do! It can't be hard to stop it for just a moment. Put -your foot----" - -With that she stamped her little white shoe on a round metal disc -projecting like a toadstool from the floor in front of her, and -immediately, whether from that cause alone, or because Antony -unwittingly complicated the manoeuvre by some untoward pressure of -knee or wrist, the car, with a tremendous jerk, began to revolve -backward upon itself in a dizzy swoop. A moment more had seen them -in the deep ditch beside the road, had not Antony dislodged her -foot with an ungraceful but timely kick and allowed the mechanism -to right itself and lumber into its course again. - -"For God's sake, sit still!" he shouted hoarsely. "Is it possible -you do not understand you are in danger? Do you wish to kill or -maim us both before it is necessary? I order you to sit perfectly -quiet until I tell you to jump!" - -"Very well," she replied meekly, with a short, frightened intake of -the breath, and they sped along. - - -THE FLIGHT - - - -II. - -THE FLIGHT - -ANTONY had now--so wonderfully resilient is youth--won sufficient -confidence in himself to realise that there was yet a chance of -bringing this dangerous expedition to some sort of successful -issue, if fate should prosper them with a straight and empty road. -They were not, fortunately, travelling at any tremendous rate of -speed; though jumping from the car would have been extremely -unwise, it remained a possibility, at least, and if, as was fairly -probable, the car had already travelled a considerable distance, -its motive power would become exhausted sooner or later and they -could dismount safely. In a few curt sentences he explained the -situation, as it appeared to him, to his companion. - -"I must beg you to believe," he concluded, "that I somehow got a -distinct impression of your telling me that you were used to -managing these things--I cannot understand how I could have -made such a mistake. I am particular in repeating this, because in -case of accident--and it would be the merest idiocy to deny that a -very grave accident is quite likely to happen at any moment--I do -not want you to think too hardly of me. But of course your realise -that unless I had been quite certain of your ability I should never -have attempted such a foolhardy thing." - -She made no answer, and at the risk of losing his straight course -he stole a rapid glance at her. - -To his surprise she was crimson with what was obvious, even to his -fleeting view, as embarrassment. Her fingers twisted nervously; the -tears that suffused her eyes were certainly not tears of grief or -fright. She bit furiously at her under lip, and began more than one -sentence that faltered away into confusion. Indeed, they had -triumphantly climbed and descended a hill that sent Antony's heart -into his throat before she succeeded in the task she evidently -loathed but had as evidently determined to fulfil. - -"Mr.--Mr. Tony," she began suddenly, alarmed in her turn at their -increased speed as they went down the hill, "in case, as you say, -anything should happen, I must tell you something. When I said -that about--about my running the car perfectly well----" - -"You didn't, of course, put it in that way," he interjected, as she -seemed unable to go on. - -"Oh, didn't I?" she asked. "I thought you said I did." - -"You said that they ran themselves, you remember, and that you were -used to them," he reminded her, "and I took that to mean----" - -"Oh, that's what I said," she repeated, thoughtfully. - -"Don't you know what you said?" he demanded, a spasm of terror -catching him and quickening his heart-beat as a great waggon loomed -into sight horribly near them. Despairingly he glanced at the -shining metal paraphernalia that encompassed him--his eye fell upon -an unmistakable brass horn at his right, terminating in a rubber -bulb. This could be but one thing, and cautiously loosening one -clammy hand from the wheel, he pressed the bulb nervously. A loud, -harsh cry from its brazen throat relieved him inexpressibly and -sent a glow of confidence through him. He repeated the pressure, -the driver of the cart looked leisurely around, and with a -scowl drew off to one side of the road. Antony's blood resumed its -normal pace, and as the course was now clear for a moment, anyway, -he repeated his question: - -"Don't you know what you said?" - -The trees, the full brooks, the grazing cattle, unrolled behind -them like a painted ribbon for several seconds before she answered. -At length his ear caught a faint, short murmur. - -"N--no." - -"Why not?" he demanded briefly. - -"I would rather not tell you," she replied with a return of her old -spirit. - -"You must tell me," he said angrily. "Here come two carriages--oh, -why did I never notice how they stopped these things? Reach under -my arms and squeeze that horn--quick!" - -The carriages separated and he went, quaking, between them. - -"Now, go on--this luck can hardly last," he warned her. "I intend -to know for how much of this nightmare I am responsible." - -"You are responsible for all of it, then," she cried recklessly. -"You had not the slightest excuse for making me drink all that -nasty, burning stuff!" - -Regardless of his wheel, Antony turned and stared at her, and only -her shriek of terror saved them from the stone wall that bordered a -curve in the road. - -"You mean you were----" - -"If you dare to say it I shall jump!" she interrupted, plucking -nervously at her skirt, and he saw that she was quite capable of -carrying out the threat. - -"But--but you drank it yourself--I thought you knew----" he -stammered. - -"It was down in my throat--I couldn't help it--I pushed it away as -soon as I could--I never tasted anything but champagne and sherry -and I thought they were all the same, those things. . ." - -She was on the point of tears now, and even in his keen sense of -danger Antony was conscious of a gratified consciousness of that -calm masculine superiority so long denied him. - -"I see, I see," he said hastily. "I am very sorry. I did the best I -could at the time: I am not accustomed to resuscitating fainting -young ladies and I rather lost my head. I assure you that I assume -all the blame." - -"I think you had better," she replied vindictively, and Antony's -conscious magnanimity collapsed instantly into an intense -irritation. - -"I must beg you to observe," he said, somewhat jerkily, as they -bounced up and down the irregularities of a rough country road, -"that I am hardly responsible, even with the best will in the -world, for your inability to consume five or six swallows of bad -whisky without--without----" in a panic of terror as her hands flew -to her skirts and her knees stiffened, he concluded -impotently, "oh, have it any way you like! It's all my fault. Now, -for heaven's sake, sit still and listen to me. Do you or do you not -know anything whatever about motor cars? I ask because it is -absolutely necessary," he added hastily. - -"I know nothing whatever about them," she returned with an icy -finality, an air of uninterested irresponsibility, that maddened -even while it appalled him. - -"Very good; neither do I," he said. "We are, as you see, on a long, -empty, practically uninhabited country road. This is extremely -fortunate for us, but it will not last much longer, for we are -coming into Huntersville, which was, on the occasion when I last -went through it in one of these ungodly machines, full of babies, -chickens, unhitched horses, and large, disagreeable dogs. Rather -than go through Huntersville I would run this thing at a tree, now. -If I could estimate the force of the shock, I'd do it anyway. But I -cannot estimate it, and I do not want to frighten you to death. -Besides, it might send the thing backward. The same reasoning -applies to a steep bank. Now, as I remember it, there is a wild -sort of road that turns off to the left very soon and goes up -a long hill somewhere or other. I haven't the least idea where, but -it must lead to something. My idea would be to go up that road and -try to wear the machinery out on it. If it runs into a field, it -can't be helped. At any rate, I think there is less risk. Are you -willing to try it?" - -His sincere and serious manner had its effect and she answered -simply, "Anything that you think is best, of course. But could we -not experiment a little, and try to stop it? It cannot be anything -very complicated, since it has to be done so often." - -"No, no, no!" Antony cried nervously, "not while I'm in my right -mind! It may seem foolish to you," he continued more stiffly, "but -I have reached my limit of experiment. I--I know nothing of any -kind of machinery--I loathe it. As soon as I began anything of that -sort, my nerve would go. You remember the result when you stamped -on that brass knob? Well, I admit that I am not equal to a -repetition, to be quite frank." - -"I thought men always understood machinery," she murmured -impatiently. "All the men I know are quite clever at it." - -Now, curiously enough, this pettish and really inexcusable -fling did not produce its presumable effect upon Antony. Whether he -felt that it was partly justified and that he was really in some -sort unworthy of his sex, or whether the actuality of their -pressing danger rendered him immune as regards such flighty stabs, -is not known, but it remains a fact that he merely pursed his lips -indulgently and spoke as follows: - -"You are indeed fortunate in your acquaintance. I regret that -practice in steering horses, sail boats, bob sleds and to a certain -small extent, dirigible balloons, has left me little leisure--and -less inclination--for these evil-smelling devil-waggons. Neither -the steamfitter nor the engineer has ever appealed to me----" - -He ceased abruptly, and as his voice died out she looked -questioningly at him, for even her slight acquaintance with the -young gentleman had taught her that he was not one to leave a -well-planned sentence incomplete from choice. - -"What is it?" she asked breathlessly. - -"That wild road is on the other side of Huntersville!" he said, -with an utter absence of comment that impressed her more deeply -than any of his previous conversational embroideries. - -Indeed, the pointed spire of the Huntersville church rose white -before them and scattered houses even now lined the road. - -"I wish we were going uphill now," Antony began, "and I should -advise you to jump. I don't believe you'd make such a mess of it as -a great many girls would be likely to. Of course, you might have on -the last hill, but I hated the idea of it. It may be steering will -do. But if it's a question of running someone down, you'll have to, -of course, and I'll turn sharp about and take my chance. Or aim at -tree. Now, blow the horn hard, please, and when I say jump, go the -way the car is going, and clear it well. You may sprain your ankle -or get a bruise or two, but that won't kill you. It's a small sort -of place, and we might get through. Don't stop the horn a moment. -What's that idiot doing?" - -On the side of the road an overgrown boy of eighteen hopped wildly -on one foot, the other stretched at right angles in front of him, -while his lank red wrists beat the air like the arms of a windmill. - -These apparently purposeless evolutions he performed mechanically -so long as his ungainly figure filled their vision, and the -maniac appearance of the yokel rasped Antony's over-strained nerves -unendurably. - -"If that is a fair sample of Huntersville youth, it would be a real -blessing to the community to murder a few," he muttered -malevolently, as they dashed, at what seemed to him a terribly -accelerated pace, into the little town. A large sign-board sprang -up suddenly, as it seemed, and faced them. - -_Village limits. Slow down to six miles an hour_ (it read) _by -order of Commissioners. Offenders Will be_---- - -But Antony, though desirous of reading further, even at the cost of -a halt, was unable to do so. - -It was high noon and the main artery of travel could not have -assumed a condition more favourable to an unwilling excursionist. -Save for a group of children, which scattered to safety at -the steady warning of the horn, and a laggard team of greys, -whose languid progress from the middle of the road to their -legitimate anchorage at the side cost their master his hind wheel, -only a pompous speckled hen disputed their right of way. To his -companion's shriek of horror--"The hen! The hen, Mr. Tony!"--Antony -replied only, through set teeth, "This is no time to think of hens-- -blow that horn!" and drove like Attila the implacable over whatever -of domesticity and motherhood that obstinate fowl may have -represented. One more heap of empty barrels making a treacherous -curve, one more angry woman, leaping into a puddle to protect her -wide-eyed urchin, one heart-stifling ne'er-do-weel lurching at the -last possible quarter-second with drunken luck, out of -destruction's way, and it was over: Antony, firmly convinced -that his hair must be snowy white, suffered the pent-up breath to -escape at last from his lungs, only to catch it desperately again -as a burly man, whose ostentatiously drawn-back coat displayed a -gleaming metal badge, stood deliberately before them, not a hundred -feet away, and waved his hand with unmistakable meaning. In this -hand fluttered a bit of yellow paper which recalled irresistible -memories of the telegraph office; the other grasped a large nickel -watch that winked derisively in the sunlight. - -"Stop!" he bellowed majestically, and balanced upon his bow legs. - -On one side stretched a hastily constructed barrier of old boards -and flimsy crates through which the blue sky line gleamed in bright -bars; on the other a heavy waggon rested at an evidently -intentional slant. - -"Blow, blow!" gasped Antony, and, "Get out of the way, you fool!" -he cried with ineffective hoarseness, grinding his teeth as it -became apparent that the creature meant to brazen it through. - -"Look out! We can't stop! Oh, please go away!" - -The shrill scream of the girl at his side accomplished more than -the horn: the terror in her eyes spoke loudly for her, and with a -face wherein rage and incredulity struggled, this vidous obstructor -of highways stepped unwillingly aside and left them a scant five -feet of passageway. But for Antony, in his present state of nerves, -five feet was all too scant. Had he then escaped all the chances -and changes of this mad morning, had he won through by a -miracle of success, only to be balked at the last by an -incalculable old village marplot? Should a paunchy waddler of this -sort wreck at once his pride and his car? Thus he frothed and -boiled in his heart, and perhaps that overheated organ clouded his -eyes and vibrated in his wrists, for the heavy front wheels of the -great vehicle crashed into the flimsy right-hand barrier, mowed -down the crates and planking as if they had been of straw, -scattered them, crackling and clattering, far and wide; and worse -than this, the hind wheels, with an utterly unintentional flirt -which had nevertheless all the effect of a malicious and -brilliantly executed manoeuvre, jolted the barrier-waggon so -violently that the horse attached to it sprang quickly forward, -thus unfortunately upsetting the pursy and authoritative native who -had retreated to that side for safety. Down he rolled in the dust, -yelling frantically, while the frightened horse with a sharp turn -fled back through the town, scattering still further the wreckage -of the ill-fated barricade. Nette, turning involuntarily, saw all -this and saw, too, that even as he bit the dust the outraged wearer -of the metal badge still clutched, and as it seemed to her -brandished, with a sinister motion the square of yellow paper. - -She stole a glance at Antony, but his set jaw and lowering brow did -not invite confidences, and she sat in silence during the few -remaining moments that sufficed to set them free of the village -outskirts. - -"Here is the road," said Antony briefly as they turned into a -winding, stony track that closed behind them like a gate; and on -this occasion no untoward happening checked the deep breath that he -allowed himself. - -"I have ridden along this road ten miles at least," he continued, -"and it is practically deserted. They have to keep it in some sort -of shape because it is the only way they have to haul timber in the -autumn from the woods beyond, and telegraph poles; then they send -them away by boat down the river. I never followed it to the end, -but I should suppose it would wind into Brookdale, which is on the -Northern Trunk Division, and nowhere near us by rail, you know." - -"Brookdale . . . Brookdale?" she murmured vaguely, as he seemed to -be waiting for her to speak. - -"What I propose to do," he went on, quite easily now, and steering -the car, within the simple limits possible, almost unconsciously, -"is to go on like this as long as the road is deserted as it is -now. As soon as we reach Brookdale--or whatever village we touch -first--I will try to find a big enough sweep to turn around in and -simply retrace our way. This I shall continue to do until this -brutal machinery runs down. It will be dull, but safe. All the -farmhouses have turns for their own waggons, and I can be fairly -sure of a clear path around a watering trough or sign board, you -see. There is a good broad sweep, I noticed, in front of the last -farm before we turn into the woods here and I'm not afraid to go as -near Huntersville as that. To begin with, they'd never believe that -we would be so foolish as to come back, and they will naturally -suppose that we took the regular state road and got across the -river; touring-cars like this don't go up this way--unless they are -obliged to," he added grimly, as an unusually rough spot shook them -till their very teeth rattled. "I hope you approve of this plan?" -he concluded politely. - -"I suppose it is the best thing to do, considering -everything," she answered after a little pause, "though I wish . . . -when shall we reach Brookdale?" - -"I am unable to tell you," Antony replied with a touch of asperity, -"and I really cannot see what difference it makes, since we can -hardly hope to stop there on our first trip." - -"To be sure," she said, "I forgot. You manage the car so well that -I forgot that you can't do anything you like with it. You must -excuse me." - -At these words a comforting and fragrant warmth, the very subtle -aroma of well-being, stole about Antony's heart, and his face -relaxed insensibly. He could the more readily excuse her ingenuous -error because he had more than once in the last hour fallen into it -himself. It was difficult to believe that his control of this -cumbrous soft-bitted monster, answering so sweetly to the slightest -contraction of his wrist, was merely nominal; that only the most -extraordinary good fortune stood between him and crushing ruin. - -"Why do you suppose that ugly fat man wanted to stop us, Mr. Tony?" -Nette demanded suddenly--"did he have any right to, or any reason?" - - -Antony sighed thoughtfully, and his various feelings struggled in -his face. - -"As to his rights," he answered judicially, "I really could not -say. He certainly had some kind of badge. But as to his reasons, I -fear the only difficulty will be to count them." - -"To count them?" she repeated curiously. "Are there so many, then?" - -Antony shrugged his shoulders expressively. - -"In the first place," he began, "we are supposed to have purposely -irritated an extremely unpleasant old snake to the point of biting, -perhaps fatally, a French chauffeur. If fatally, the law wants us -on that account. In the second place, we have stolen a large -and costly touring car and are apparently occupied in making away -with it as fast as possible. And the law wants us on that account. -In the third place, we have violated the speed regulations of -Huntersville and refused to stop when called upon to answer for it, -and the law wants us on that account. In the fourth place, we have -knocked down and, for all I know, seriously injured an official of -Huntersville, and the law wants us on that account. Do I make -myself clear?" - -"Quite clear," she replied soberly, and then, without the slightest -warning, she burst into a rich gurgle of laughter, so rollicking -and infectious that Antony had joined her before he realised it, -and the wood rang with their united mirth. The massive mechanism, -whose least lever they could not have explained, had it been to -save their lives, rolled ponderously along, clanking and hissing -beneath them; and they, perched like flippant butterflies on its -upholstered surface, chuckled and trilled and rejoiced in their -youth. As the Indian child leads the mighty elephant by a leash of -meadow grass, so Antony directed his car with a flick of the wrist, -and like the child thought nothing of what he did, save that it was -amusing and showed forth his mightiness. Death glided along -beside them, revolving softly with each turn of the four broad -tires; terror lurked at every vine-twisted bend in the road; not a -smooth beech nor a rough chestnut but might have hidden behind it -some horrid destiny--and they rode on lightly, as the froth on the -breaker before it crashes on the beach. - -Upon Antony, indeed, positive serenity had fallen, and a -consciousness of readiness for any emergency. It was with some -strong sense of this that he leaned down to his companion and said -with a masterful smile--the smile of one whose thorough -acquaintance with himself precludes any idea of self-gratulation: - -"Perhaps, my dear Miss Nette, it is, after all, as well that you -have one of us despised young fellows with you to-day? Even the -most fascinating of greybeards might have found this crisis a -little too much for him?" - -Only the lowest curve of her flushed cheek was visible. Grapelike -curls of warm brown shielded her eyes, but he remembered their -astonishing blue and glanced with keen appreciation at her silken -instep to strengthen the memory. When all was said, what pluck she -had! How many girls would have skimmed so swiftly and surely -down that hill, would have faced a danger so evident with such -buoyant courage, would have smiled so comradely in the face of -fear? What if her tongue were a little sharp? She was not the -ordinary brainless twitterer of her age. And something more than -brain had flashed and deepened in her eyes. . . . She was speaking. - -"Perhaps, my dear Mr. Tony," she responded affably--alas, too -affably--"it is, after all, as well to remember that even the least -fascinating of greybeards would be hardly likely to involve me in -such a crisis!" - -The car rose to a large irregular stone that punctuated the already -rough road, and Antony bounced angrily from his seat, descending -with a shock that jarred his spine throughout its length. It seemed -to him that the machinery clanked and laboured more heavily, that -they were going a little more slowly; only a little, perhaps, but -still more slowly. But he was too vexed to care if their progress -were slow or quick. He loathed the pert, confident creature at his -side from the bottom of his heart. Viewed in the sudden sultry heat -of his feelings, what was her self-possession but brazen -effrontery? Was such diabolic quickness of _riposte_ even -creditable to her years and sex? He considered the situation -briefly: why were they in their present plight? Because, to put the -matter baldly, he had been misled by the statements of a young -woman who had openly admitted herself in no condition to be held -responsible for her words--a pretty state of things! Really, it was -hardly . . . hardly . . . but she was speaking again. - -"Mr. Tony," she said softly (she had the knack of making a soft -murmur rise above the clamour of the machinery), "please do not -think, Mr. Tony, that I do not appreciate your courage, and--and -sensibleness after it all happened! And I fully realise that it was -partly my--that I--that if I had not----" - -"Not at all," he answered stiffly, taking pity in spite of himself -at her evident embarrassment. "As you implied, the initial -responsibility was all mine." - -But though his words were stiff, his heart had grown insensibly -supple under the pressure of her voice. After all, what did her -condition prove--that condition that had prompted their mad flight-- -but her very innocence and ignorance of alcoholicstimulant? A -very good showing, in these relaxed and indecorous days. We should -always try to be just. - -Drifting on these conflicting tides of feeling, Antony ceased to -study the winding road with the severe scrutiny he had hitherto -applied to it, and as the way was now very rough, he failed utterly -to observe for what it was, a certain grassy cart track curving -into their path, and took it with a twist of the wheel, even as his -companion cried out in alarm. - -"What are you doing? This cannot be right!" she warned, but it was -too late, and Antony realized that on the very verge of the -wood road, just as he should have looked for a space to turn in and -retrace their safe course, he had left that course entirely and was -steering along a now barely perceptible wheelway through a rough -and rolling pasture lot. - -He shut his lips tightly and affected not to have heard her, and -for a few seconds they rode, in silence, through the stony field. -Suddenly she grasped his arm and for the first time terror -sharpened her voice. - -"Oh! oh! see those cows! Oh, don't you see them? Go back! Go back!" - -Antony shook her off impatiently and grazed a stump on the right -only to bump against a jagged boulder on the left. The car was -undoubtedly moving more slowly; he could swear to it. - -"I believe it is an established fact that the cow is not -carnivorous," he observed, peering in spirit to the limits of the -field and wondering if he could turn in case a stone wall -threatened. - -"I am going to jump," she announced quietly, and a spasm of fear -shot through him remembering the pointed stubble and the flinty -rocks. - - - -"Listen," he commanded, "and try not to be a little idiot. What -harm can a cow do you? Or if it could"--with a burst of -inspiration--"why should you throw yourself into the middle of -them--perhaps with a broken leg?" - -A smothered gasp told him that this shot had told, and he drove on -grimly; the nearly obliterated track led straight into the nibbling -herd. As the monstrous, labouring chariot neared them they lifted -their heads, stared gloomily a moment, and lumbered off, herding -into a clumsy canter as the unknown enemy gained on them. Stunted -firs rose here and there beside the track; the wheels crushed the -smaller stumps now, and tipped more alarmingly as they took the -unavoidable stones. They two might have been the first (or last) of -human pairs in all the world, for they rode utterly alone between -the dun earth and the blue sky. Each moment Antony expected to -wake, gripping the sheets, and each moment this dreamlike progress, -this mad chase of dappled cows, this pitching, tossing, clangorous -flight, grew more real, more ludicrous, more menacing. - -Suddenly the path grew smoother; even, it seemed to Antony, more -slippery. The wheels took a different motion, the noise of -machinery grew by tiny degrees less and lower and died into a -drone. It almost seemed that they were gliding with the force of -gravity alone, for the track (now a broad muddy band) dipped -slightly but steadily. They appeared to be bound for a providential -gap in an ugly stone wall; below this stretched a wonderfully green -field bounded by a thick row of feathery sage-coloured trees, the -first full foliage they had seen. - -Drugged with the steady head-wind of their flight, his hands -mechanically glued to the wheel, his brain a mere phonograph that -sang, over and over, "Keep in the track! Keep In the track!" Antony -took his juggernaut through the scant six feet in the wall, marked -how those of the cattle that had crowded through the opening made -for the thinnest place in the fringe of trees, tried to estimate -the force of a collision with one of those gnarled and twisted -trunks, and realised to his horror that all power of initiative -was exhausted in him. Helpless and hypnotised, fatalistic as a -wild-riding Arab, he could only sit and grasp the wheel and wonder -vaguely what would happen. Would she jump? He was practically -certain that the motive-power was completely or nearly -exhausted, and that they were slipping along on a different and -sloping soil. Even as this flashed through his mind he saw a -welcome gap in the sage-green trees and made for it, though in -doing so he left the path, which, for that matter, split -inexplicably into many tiny paths. - -What was that behind the green? What fields or walls or trees are -blue? What blue shimmers and sparkles? . . . - -"Jump! Jump!" he cried, hoarsely, but she sat fascinated, turned to -stone by his side. - -As one watches the water in a globe of coloured glass by the -seashore and smiles at the tiny splashing mites that sport in it, -so Antony watched a large red-and-white cow stagger helplessly down -a steepish slope, and smiled as she plunged clumsily into the broad -river. "It is beyond her depth, for she is swimming," he thought, -and then they hung for three seconds on the brink of the tiny -slope, a maddening three seconds, in which they might have jumped, -but could not--and plunged, with a sharp, sweet scream from the -rigid girl by his side, into the river. It rose up strangely, as it -seemed, to meet them, and with the cold shock of the water -Antony's will returned to him, and he rolled over the side of the -car before it was quite submerged, dragging Nette with him, and -pitching her over beyond him with his left arm. She slipped from -his grasp by the very force of the movement and went down, and the -current caught them both. - - - - - -THE RETURN - - - -III. - -THE RETURN - -EVEN as he sank in the river, Antony perceived that he was in the -grip of a terrible current. He struck out with all his strength -against it for a moment, instinctively, before he realised that it -was folly to combat it; and as he rose to the surface, staring -eagerly along the course of its tugging compulsion, he saw, as he -had hoped to see, a sleek small head several yards in advance of -him. With a shout of encouragement he made for the small, floating -dot, and swam as he had never swam before, marking its distance -each second in order to be able to dive when it should disappear. -But it did not disappear. To his delight it floated serenely along, -and as he caught up with it, still yelling in his excitement, it -turned towards him. - -"Don't you think you might as well stop that noise, now?" said -Nette calmly. "We seem to be saved. Is it far to the shore?" - -Antony's jaw dropped and he swallowed more of the river water than -was conducive to his comfort. - -"I--I don't know, really," he gasped, "but it can't be, of course, -if this beastly current will only let us land. Shall I hold you a -little? Aren't you tired?" - -"Not yet" she answered briefly. "I'll let you know. Of course my -clothes make a dif----" - -She paused abruptly and devoted her breath to keeping up with him. -Antony was a strong and rapid swimmer and had had more than one -occasion to practice the art when fully dressed. Rising on his -stroke, he glanced about him and saw with joy that the current was -sweeping them gradually, though not directly, to the left bank of -the river. He could in fact discern their course in the different -texture of the water as it sparkled in the sun. - -"Just put your hand on my shoulder," he begged. "There's no use -wasting your strength. I think we ought to be there in five -minutes, at this rate. It must be awfully hard in those skirts." - -Her breath came short and hard now; with a slight motion of her -head she indicated her assent, and placed her hand on his shoulder, -and they slid in silence through the water. The bank, which now -loomed clearly over them, was quite high at this point, and Antony -deliberately neglected more than one place where a brief effort -would have got them out of the current, in order to make sure of an -easy slope by which to land. Suddenly his eye lit on what he had -been waiting for, a winding, easy path up through the cleared -underbrush, with a rough, three-sided shanty near it. - -"Here we are!" he cried encouragingly. "I think I can get you -across--by Jove, it's taking us there!" - -And this was so: the current, with a distinct twist, urged them in -towards shore, and in a moment more Antony touched the bottom of -the river and towed his companion, now hanging heavily on him, in -to safety. They dragged themselves wearily up the little path, -soggy and dripping, Nette's skirts heavy with water, and sat down -with one accord on a sunny rock in front of the decaying old -building, evidently a deserted boathouse, from the coils of rope -and broken oars that lay there. They looked dully at each other, -and as they looked they shivered, for hot as was the sun, the -river, not yet warmed by this specious early spring, had chilled -them to the bone. - -Antony shook himself and tried to overcome the lassitude that had -crept on him. - -"Well, here we are!" he said tentatively, pressing his teeth -together to hide their chattering. "It is a mighty good thing you -swim so well, isn't it? Now we must get out of this as soon as -possible--your lips are blue. I suppose you really ought to run -about a little, oughtn't you?" - -"I suppose so," she assented wearily, "but I shall not do so, -nevertheless. Is there no house near here?" - -They gazed about them, but no chimney, no red barn, no white -steeple, rewarded the inspection. Robinson upon his isle could have -felt himself no more abandoned. Jutting headlands cut off their -view up and down the river; high pasture land broken with woods -covered all they could see on the opposite bank, and the one upon -which they found themselves appeared to consist entirely of sand -pits, gnarled roots, and fallen trees, with what seemed a rather -formidable forest behind. - -"It seems idiotic," Antony began, "and of course we must be -somewhere--this is a ridiculous sort of country; one would think we -were in the middle of Africa--but just at the moment I cannot say -that I see any signs of humanity but this old boathouse. I will -take a run up beyond that little promontory and look about. Please -jump up and down while I am gone, and could you not take that skirt -off and dry it in the sun?" - -She nodded. - -"And by the way," she observed casually, "where is the motor-car, do -you suppose?" - -Antony sat down from sheer force of surprise. He had utterly -forgotten the motor-car. Life to him had begun anew when he -staggered up the bank. He looked piteously over the shining river. - -"Well, we've done it, now!" he exclaimed, and as he sat in huddled -misery a fit of senseless laughter shook him, nor was his dripping -companionlong in joining him. They laughed till the decayed -old boathouse echoed, and when, from very fatigue, they stopped, no -trifles such as cold or wet or isolation or the justly merited -terror of the Law could cloud their invincible youth after that -baptism of mirth. - -"Anyway," Antony began, his voice still shaking, "we are on the -other side of the river, and there is no bridge for two miles, -certainly, and we came through a pasture to get here and so the old -car is pretty safe to be under the mud by the time she could be -traced. They say the bottom is mostly quicksand all about here--if -we are here--for heaven's sake, what is that?" - -He pointed to a black rectangular object floating placidly on to -shore, not ten feet from them. - -"It is a trunk," Nette replied excitedly, "a black, waterproof -motor trunk! And a suit case behind it! And oh, see, do you see -that hat box?" - -They held their breath as the strange squadron sailed majestically -along the guiding current into their tiny port, the trunk floating -high, displaying its white stenciled monogram proudly, the suit -case following, the absurd little chimney-pot ducking and bobbing -in the rear. Suddenly, as the suit case seemed likely to drift -out again, they rushed to the bank, and while Nette dragged the -trunk to shelter Antony strode into the water and gathered in the -smaller craft. - -They were all of wicker, with a lining of oiled silk and a covering -of thick waterproof rubber material, and as Nette pulled at the -fastenings of the trunk and flung back the lid it was at once -evident that both these shielding materials had admirably performed -their office: the contents were uninjured. They looked upon a -shallow tray divided into two parts. In one lay what was apparently -a small, fantastically shaped cloud of palest mauve. Upon one side -of this cloud there was fastened with a sort of jewel a long, soft -feather of a slightly deeper tint of mauve. This feather curled -caressingly about the cloud and Antony's experience instructed him -that the object was quite terrestrial--was, in fact, a hat. An -indistinguishable, fluffy, shimmering mass of mauve filled the -other compartment, and in the cover a cunning artificer had set a -fair-sized mirror, surrounded by numerous loops of leather which -held brushes, combs, and other toilet accessories. As Antony -regarded this collection of objects, he was aware of a long, soft -sigh, and turning to his companion he beheld her bowing as in a -trance before them, lost, like the persons in a well-known hymn, in -wonder, love and praise. - -"Oh! How perfect!" she breathed, and at the picture of her, -dripping and draggled, shivering and ecstasied, he shook his head -in thoughtful amazement. - -"Now, Miss Nette," he said abruptly, "do you know what you are -going to do. This is simply too extraordinary to be anything less -than providential. You are going to follow me into this little shed -and when I have taken the trunk there, you are going to put on -everything you can find in it. If there's anything sensible enough -there, please give yourself a good rub-down with it. Will you take -cold with your hair wet?" he added masterfully. - -Either moisture or the sight of the mauve glories had taught her -meekness, for: - -"Oh, no, my hair will dry in a few minutes--it dries very quickly," -she assured him, adding timidly, "but ought I--they are so lovely-- -have we any right----" - -"I suppose you have a right to avoid pneumonia," he interrupted her -rudely "and as far as the question of rights is concerned, this is -rather late in the day to go into that, I think!" - -He marched to the little shed, bearing the trunk, as it had been -the crown regalia, on outstretched arms, and Nette, wringing her -hair and murmurmg incoherent abnegations concerning her -unworthiness of the mauve mysteries, followed nevertheless. - -Repeating sternly his injunctions as to the value of thorough -rub-downs, he left her, and falling upon the suit case, which he -prophetically connected with the comforting masculine hat box, he -carried it behind the shed, and at a chivalrous distance opened it -Then in that deserted wood there was a silence, like that which -fell in heaven, for the space of half an hour and, it may be, a -little longer. At the end of this silence there appeared from -behind a large oak a very dignified and handsome young gentleman -attired, perhaps a thought impractically for his surroundings, -in a fleckless frock coat with the appurtenances usually -thereto accredited by our leading metropolitan tailors, such as -stiffly creased grey trousers, patent-leather shoes, and delicate -gloves dangled in the hand. Walking somewhat mincingly, this -gentleman, elaborately backing around the shed and apparently not -observing it, sought a rubber-incased hat box lying on the ground, -and stooping gingerly, unclasped it, drew from it a glossy, black -hat, and after a few affectionate strokings, which, applied to its -surface, could but recall to any student of literature the painting -of the lily, placed the same upon his sleek head with an absorbed -and even slightly terrified expression, which melted slowly into -one of deep satisfaction. After this he coughed politely and -prepared to back again around the little hut. In this operation he -was, however, interrupted by a soft tug at one of his almost -too perfect coat tails. - -"I look very well, too, I think," said a hesitating, sweet voice, -and in an instant he was bareheaded before her. - -Charming as Nette had appeared in her simple walking dress, Antony -was utterly unprepared for the picture she now presented. In the -absurd and yet wonderfully effective setting of the brown, budding -trees, the broken and forbidding rocks, against the dull background -of the dingy, decaying hut, her soft, pale tints of hat and gown -gleamed like some one of the perfumed daintinesses Watteau traced -upon his tricksy, tempting court fans. The whole costume, from the -sweeping cavalier feather to the saucy, buckled slippers, recalled -subtly that delightful pretense at Arcadia, that amusing pastoral -figuring and posturing that broke under a sigh too ardent, a -pressure too fiery, into the scented powder puff and the satin -stays. One looked for a spinet, garlanded with golden cupids, for a -white lamb smelling like Araby the blest, for a wreathed crook with -a tiny mirror artfully set in its curve. To gaze upon that -diabolically contrived simplicity was to produce in the susceptible -breast, and most particularly in the susceptible masculine -breast, an odd tumult of sensations too conflicting in their nature -for description. - -Nette's hair ran vine-like under the melting, tender-coloured -plume; her skin glowed softly rosy, and two faint violet shadows -under her brilliant eyes toned sweetly with the colours of her -misleading gown. Around her neck on a slender golden chain was hung -a singularly perfect fresh-water pearl, large, with shifting -colours, utterly unadorned by any jeweller's fancies; an odd and -very elegant bauble that caught Antony's eye instantly. - -"Mademoiselle," he began, "you are--you are----" he paused, for -genuine lack of words. "You are absurdly charming," he concluded, -not altogether lamely, after all, and she swept him a graceful -courtesy, her long, pale sash-ends floating out against the rough -bark behind her. Nor was Master Antony displeased at the -satisfaction at his appearance which he surprised in her eyes. -Intrinsically inartistic indeed is the garb of our modern male, and -yet to our accustomed eye there is a fine air of fitness, a grave -elegance, in his sombre bifurcation; an ordered poetry in his -candid vest, his lustrous neck scarf; a twinkling luxuriousness -in his polished and costly footwear. All this appeared to -perfection in Antony's dignified figure, just sufficiently above -the middle height to allow of his being called tall. - -"The sleeves," he informed her, "are a little short and I am not -sure that I have not stretched the shoulder seams a little, but the -shoes are exactly my own size. The underwear," he added absently, -"was silk. Apricot colour----" - -"My shoes," she began hastily, "are too large, but I think I can -keep them on. The skirt is too long, of course, but I can hold it -up. The hat," she concluded, with softened eyes, "I should like to -be buried in." - -"I should dislike to have you buried in it," he said briefly, "and -now," he continued briskly, "the next thing is to get away. I have -put all my things into the suit case and I will, with your -permission, put yours there too. Then we will leave the suit case -and the hat box under a pile of old boughs near where I dressed, -and the trunk--is there anything in the trunk?" he broke off. - -"No, I put them all on," she assured him, flushing delightfully. -"There was just enough--of everything." - -"I see. Well, I think we'll simply leave it here. Perhaps I might -hide it a little," and he tossed a dusty roll of cocoa matting and -a coil of rope over the receptacle, which being small became from -that moment unnoticed. - -"And now," said Antony, when he had conveyed the neat, damp roll -she handed him to its hiding place, "let us get along. We can do no -better than follow this path, which seems to grow broader, if -anything, and it stands to reason we must come out somewhere. I may -as well confess that I have a very poor idea of location, and I -don't as yet find any landmarks. From the moment that we struck off -into that field track I lost my bearings entirely. I should suppose -we were opposite--or almost opposite--Brookdale; perhaps a bit -lower down. We can get a rig and drive back probably--unless we die -of hunger," he ended angrily. "I have only a little change with me ---forgot it when I changed my clothes, of course, this morning. I -suppose, though, I could get some money on this," and he fingered -the scarf pin at his throat. It was a horseshoe of small diamonds -of the purest water, and as Nette's eyes fastened on it she started -suddenly. - -"Was that what you had on this morning?" she asked. - -"No," he answered, flushing a little. "I found it in a jeweller's -box on the top of the things in the suit case, with a letter. I -have the letter--it says only 'Amory' on it. I put the pin on," a -trifle shamefacedly, "more or less to go with the whole rig, you -know!" - -Antony looked very boyish as he made this confession and Nette -could but smile as he fingered the little horseshoe consciously. -This smile was not lost upon the youth, and turning, he walked on -in silence, advancing steadily if delicately along the path, which, -though narrow enough to force them into single file, was -sufficiently clear to afford a certain margin of safety to -Nette's billowy splendours. Antony occasionally held back a -threatening bough, and she from time to time moaned apprehensively -as some projecting stump detained her drapery for a terrifying -second; but for this they exchanged no further conversation. - -Antony's faculties, stretched to their utmost since morning, -unfortified by food, absolutely refused to rally around him on this -occasion, and though he cudgelled his brains for a solution of the -probabilities of his conduct when they should emerge from the wood, -it was a useless performance. He was capable of walking erectly -through the trees, of keeping his shoes bright, of shielding his -hat from indignity--and of nothing more. Thus oblivious to all but -the sensations of the moment, he plodded steadily on, and it was -with an expression of positive stupor that he burst all at once and -without the slightest transition of the foliage out of the rude -woods into a trim gravel road flanked by incredibly artificial -Lombardy poplars. In front of him swept a terraced lawn; far across -it rose a lordly Elizabethan mansion composed, apparently, of -weathered oak and gay window boxes; a marvellously rolled -tennis court swam before his dazzled eyes. As he felt Nette at his -side and opened his lips to speak, a loud, triumphant shout burst -upon the air and a carriage and pair stationed at the end of the -drive sprang into rapid motion towards them. - -"'Ere you are, sir! 'Ere! Just in time, sir, jump in! All right, -sir--I knew by the lady's dress--could you h'open the door -yourself, sir? Mr. Richard said he knew you'd try the old road-- -'owever did you get over the old bridge, sir? I doubt we can make -it this late, but we'll try. Excuse me, sir, but there's no time -for talk--in you go, sir!" - -Under the piercing eye of the garrulous old servant Nette slipped -into the brougham and Antony after her, as one in a dream. The fat -bays literally galloped along the crushed stone, whirled through an -elaborate iron gateway, and devoured the stretch of country road -whose scattered houses Antony tried in vain to identify. - -"Where are we going?" Nette asked fearfully, but he could only -shake his head. - -"Somewhere near a railroad station, I hope," he answered; "we -couldn't very well walk along the road dressed like this. -Evidently this old idiot knows your dress--that's very -unfortunate." - -"He cannot know it," she insisted, "for it has never been worn. I -am sure of it." - -"Nonsense," said Antony brutally, and at her incredulous -displeasure he softened only so far as to demand: - -"Then how did he know you?" - -"I don't know," she admitted, and they drew up suddenly among a -crowd of carriages and motor-cars gathered around a quaint stone -church. - -"Now we'll slip out," Antony began, when all at once a slender -young man sprang to the door of the brougham, wrenched it open, -seized Antony's hand, and burst into a torrent of language. - -"Well, you took your time, didn't you? At last! Ritchie was sick -with rage--till we got the telegram. How's Auguste? Car gave -out, of course. Poor Emily felt dreadfully. Miss---excuse me, but -all I can think of is Gertrude, you can just get in--dash over to -the cloister and they've left a place, _So_ glad to have met you-- -yes, indeed. This is Williamson. Please ask for mother's carriage -directly the ceremony is over--we're going to form an arch or -something at the house. Hurry up, old man--I had all your work. The -rest are in by this time, but I have to attend to the carriages and -you are to take in the late ones. Family on left of white ribbons-- -for heaven's sake, Miss Gertrude--_run!_" - -He dragged Nette from the step and raced her toward the church; she -lifted her skirts and skimmed like a swallow beside him. Antony -stumbled to the puffing old coachman, pulled all the silver out of -his pocket and handed it to him mechanically. - -"Thank you kindly, sir--I did my best. So many not knowing either -you or the young lady, sir, it was 'ard for us, but I did my best. -She looks beautiful, they tell me--h'isn't that some one waving for -you, sir?" - -Antony ran wildly towards the church door, whence issued a pompous -and familiar peal from the organ; a strongly accented march, to -whose measures, he reflected dizzily, no one whom he had yet -encountered had ever been able to adapt his steps. He peered up the -little, crowded aisle. Half-way along it paced a solemn party of -young men; four visions of mauve and feathers followed them, and -even as he removed his hat four more hurried past him and entered -the door. They were in couples, each bearing a great armful of -white and purple sweet peas, and the maiden nearest him in the last -couple, flushed and panting, with one bare arm, was none other than -poor Uncle Julius's godmother's own daughter's stepdaughter! She -moved demurely, her eyes downcast, the great pearl rising with her -quick breath, and Antony wiped the troubled sweat from his brow. A -stir behind him, a murmured, sighing tribute, and the bride was -passing by. White as the lilies in her hands, a frostlike veil -falling over her glistening train, she glided beside her portly -father, and the crowded little church turned to mark her passage as -a hedge of sunflowers seeks the sun. - -Antony sighed and turned to confront a massive lady swathed in -rose-coloured satin and variously adorned with precious stones of -all colours. She fixed him with a protruding grey eye and directed -toward him a hissing whisper. - -"I am the bride's Aunt!" she declared. Antony stared vaguely at -her. - -"And I hope there is a seat well to the front," she continued -severely, if hoarsely. - -With a shock of comprehension Antony thrust forward his arm. - -"I am sure that there is, madam," he said politely, "pray come with -me." - -And so it happened that he led the massive satin creature up the -aisle in the wake of that mystic procession, outwardly a mask of -courtly solicitude, but within him the premonitions of whirling -mania. He was literally faint with hunger; the strong sweetness -of the lilies and other aromatic plants disposed about the church -for its decoration affected him almost unpleasantly with their -cloying odours, and the menacing fear that with every step he was -involving himself further in a list of crimes so confused as to be, -perhaps, yet uncatalogued in the annals of the law, shadowed his soul. - -"_I, Emily Hildegarde, take thee, Richard_----" - -the tones of the frost-like bride were as clear and silvery as her -veil. Richard would encounter a certain amount of self-possession, -it appeared. But perhaps young women were all self-possessed, now. -Antony could not recall a bride that had trembled in his -experience. - -The solemn service hastened to its conclusion. Suppose the marriage -should prove to have been invalid because of a fraudulent and -criminal usher? It might be possible. . . . - -"I am sorry, but the church is filled," he murmured suavely to a -beseeching violet-scented pair, marvelling at his own self-command. - -It was over. Mendelssohn announced it and his echoes shook the -windows. Two more hopeful voyagers had launched out upon life, -arm in arm down the smiling, tearful aisle; two more combatants -with armour scarcely buckled smiled boastfully on entering the -field, nor noted that it was strewn with the breakage of their -predecessors! - -Thus cynically did Antony muse as the glowing pair swept by, when -all at once a soft voice murmured close to his ear: - -"Ask for Mrs. Williamson's carriage!" - -She was gone. They were all gone, in a perfumed cloud of mauve, and -with a bound he cleared the three entrance steps and ran to the -crowd of vehicles that began to move about. - -"Is Mrs. Williamson's carriage here?" he called loudly, and, as a -one-horse coupe drew up to him, the odour of sweet peas was wafted -across his nostrils and she swept in beside him, jealously guarding -her skirts from harmful contacts. Obedient to her imperative -gesture, he took his seat beside her, and feeling unable to combine -into any intelligible sentence his emotions and apprehensions, -gazed questioningly into her flushed and sparkling countenance. She -pressed the sweet peas to her breast, and as the carriage moved off -at a rapid pace she looked deep into his eyes and spoke. - -"Wasn't she lovely?" she said dreamily. - -Antony opened his mouth and closed it, opened it again and again -closed it. For a moment it seemed to him that his mind was reeling -from its foundations; that perhaps, after all, he was the -legitimate usher of Emily's wedding and that this lustrous-eyed -creature with him was Gertrude . . . and then a wholesome rage came -to his assistance. - -"For heaven's sake," he cried, "talk reasonably! Where are we -going? What town is this? Do you realise the awful situation we are -in? I shall go raving mad if this thing keeps up much longer!" - -She laid a small gloved hand on his knee and spoke calmly to the -quivering youth. - -"Listen," she said, "I do not see that we can do better than -go on to the house. It is a very big wedding and we can mix very -easily in the crowd if only I can get another dress--or a long -coat, somewhere. Perhaps I can. Especially now, when hardly any one -is here yet. Then you can get hold of a carriage and we can drive -to the station. We can at least get something to eat, for I know -how hungry you are. Nobody knows who half the people are at a -wedding--it is the safest place in the world for--for----" - -"For escaping criminals," he concluded bitterly, yet with an -unreasonable lightening of heart. "It is true, nobody will know me. -And perhaps I can find out where we are." - -"And who we are," she reminded him, smiling kindly. - -He was amazed at the almost maternal gentleness, the sweet poise of -her manner. She might have been the very bridesmaid she simulated. - -"Did any one speak to you?" he asked curiously. - -She shook her head. - -"I was so late. I think I am _her_ friend, and they don't seem to -know each other so very well. The first four are friends, but -my four, no. Still, I can't very well see them again, for she will -ask about me--oh, who can this be?" - -They had turned in at a different gate from the one by which they -had left and were following a driveway that led along a series of -stables and offices. From one of these a house-maid ran out, -stopping the carriage with a gesture. At her embarrassed request -Antony opened the carriage door. - -"I was to ask the first one that came by this way, if you please-- -you are an usher, aren't you, sir?"--Antony nodded grimly--"to go -to the laundry, right here, sir, and pick out the best arches. -They're in the tubs. The other gentlemen will help carry them in. -Mr. Richard thought the ladies would know best about the arches," -she added shyly, Smiling graciously, Nette stepped lightly from the -coupe, and as Antony followed her she nodded to the coachman, - -"You may go back now," she said, "we will walk up to the -house in a few moments." - -He touched his hat and drove on, the house-maid hastened in the -same direction, and Nette, followed by her companion, stepped into -the laundry. There indeed were the arches, twined with purple and -white sweet peas; the dim, damp room reeked and bloomed with them. -As they confronted each other uncertainly, a high, excited voice -floated toward them, evidently nearing rapidly. - -"We must have every carriage guarded and the trains watched, that's -all. They must be in the house, and they had no luggage, so how can -they change their clothes? That dress will mark the woman -absolutely. They will try for a motor, of course." - -Steps were at the laundry door. In an agony of terror Antony -dragged the girl into a back room, and hardly knowing what he did, -beckoned her up a narrow, dingy stair. Like shadows they fled up -it, and crouched at its head listening to the tramping feet of what -was evidently a group of men: young men from their tone and manner. - -"It's perfectly clear," began the unmistakable voice of Williamson, -"they are, of course, that same couple that got off with -three big touring cars last season. It's their specialty. The man -drives like a demon, and the woman is the coolest little devil that -ever walked. They have Amory's car, they got the clothes, and by -coming so late they actually put the thing through. I hope no -jewelry is gone, but we mustn't alarm the guests at any cost--Emily -would never forgive us." - -"The woman is marked--I know all the bridesmaids now, and I shall -make it my business to locate the eighth. Harvey, will you stay -with the presents? Ritch, like a fool, refused to have a -detective." - -"What did he look like, Williamson?" some one demanded. - -"Kick me, if you want to, Harvey, I couldn't tell to save my -life I--I was so excited, and he was so decent about it--he's just -like anybody else. And I'm the only one that said a word to him-- -it's maddening! We'll have to let him go--we can't grab every man -we see, and nobody knows who half these people are. But watch the -dining-room. Amory ought to be here any minute. He's nearly crazy, -I suppose." - -"Oh, I don't know," drawled a third voice. "If his precious -Gertrude is with him, what's a scarf pin more or less to Ammy?" - -"Nevertheless, I'm sorry for the man that took that car," said -Williamson curtly, and Antony bit his lip nervously on the stairs -as he listened to the low murmur of assent that followed. - -"Well, don't let us stay here all night," Williamson began again -fussily. "Grab some of these damned wreaths, you fellows, and see -if we can get them up to the house without sitting down in them!" - -They bustled out, arguing over the best methods of tracking down -their victims, who cowered miserably above them. Fear, insensate, -reasonless fear, had laid his quivering, livid fingers on their -shoulders, and chilled the blood in their veins. To get away-- -to get away, at any cost! - -Antony, stooping over the crouching figure by his side, whispered -in her ear: - -"I'll step down and look about a bit. There must be some way--I'll -get you a coat somewhere and we can slip out. Wait here." - -All was empty and silent in the laundry, but as he stopped a moment -behind the door before peering out, a hand knocked gently on it and -a boy's voice questioned softly. - -"Are ye' there, then? Are ye, sir?" Instinctively and before he -could catch back the word, Antony whispered hoarsely: - -"Yes!" - -"I'll be puttin' this in the durway, then, and Miss Delia Nolan -said for me to say for ye to please wait an hour for her, an' she'd -surely come. She does be needed in the bedrooms upstairs to watch -the ladies' clothes f'r fear they'd be stolen, she says. But if -ye'll wait the hour, she'll be with you, with more, maybe, if she -can get it. Trust me for the horses, sir!" - -There was a rattle and a thud as of some heavy object deposited on -the floor in the open door, and the messenger scurried away. -Antony looked cautiously around the door, and as he looked his eyes -grew large and round, for there before him lay a mammoth tray -filled with dainties to wake an appetite in one far less famished -than poor Antony. Two half-emptied bottles reared their grateful -promise high in the middle, and the jellied fowl vied with the -crusted croquet, the rich pActA(C) gleamed among the feathery wheaten -rolls, the lobster nestled coyly in his luscious mayonnaise, -seeming indeed to blush under the young man's ardent and -devouring gaze. Breathlessly he lifted it, eagerly he bore it to -that musty upper room, and there, with soft little cries of -surprise from her and long-drawn sighs of satisfaction from him, -they fell upon it. With every morsel of the food, with every -throatful of the heartening, still beaded wine, courage, nay, -audacity, crept softly over their jaded spirits, as the gentle but -inevitable tide creeps up the beach. - -"To Miss Delia Nolan!" he cried lightly, raising high his glass; -"long life to her and her coachman!" - -And "long life to her and her coachman!" Nette echoed, smiling from -the broken chair she sat upon at Antony, who knelt before the tray. -Through the chinks of the closed, dusty blinds vivid pencils of -light streaked her delicate dress: she gleamed like a modish crocus -in the bare lumber room. The rich viands before her, the dainty -opalescence of the frozen sweet she held in a tinted, flower-shaped -glass, the very dusk of the closed chamber, making her youth and -loveliness more jewel-like, all enhanced the piquancy of the -picture she presented. Antony's resolution flamed high in him: -should such pluck, such beauty, such resource, be captured -now, now after all they had gone through? - -Never! He swore it. - -As he registered this oath she rose lightly from her chair, and -still jealously protecting her billowy skirts, began to peer about -the room. Of a sudden she stopped and stood like a pointer dog, one -finger raised to command his attention. - -"What is in that basket?" she whispered excitedly. - -There was no need to whisper, for not only the laundry but all the -ground about it was absolutely deserted. But secrecy and flight -have but one language and must conspire in whispers at the Pole -itself. The basket in question, which lay in the darkest corner of -the room, was of the description commonly in use among laundresses -when they would return the purified objects of their toil. Bending -over this, Nette fumbled a moment among its contents, and with a -triumphant exclamation held up to Antony's bewildered vision a -fresh, creased garment striped alternately with blue and white. - -"And here is the apron! And here is the cap!" she murmured -exultantly, "now I defy that horrid Mr. Williamson to find -me! 'A marked woman,' indeed!" - -Instantly the feasibility of the plan struck him, and he -congratulated her warmly. - -"Now all we need is to know where we are," he assured her, "and -enough money to get away from it, wherever it is, and we are safe! -I will step out and look about a bit while you change your dress; I -feel confident that we shall find some means--luck would not have -the heart to desert us now!" - -He tiptoed, needlessly, it is true, down to the laundry, and in the -very act of opening the door stumbled upon a plump old gentleman-- -the very gentleman upon whose doubtless paternal arm the frost-like -bride had preceded Antony to the altar. Ere the youth had time to -catch his breath the portly one addressed him querulously. - -"Oh! how d'ye do? So dark in here--senseless place to send a man! -No more sweet peas, that I can see--can you? Pack-horse, too, I -suppose like the rest of us? Fine business for my guests!" - -"There is not a sweet pea left, sir," said Antony respectfully, -"and if there were any I should certainly not allow you to -undertake the transportation of them. You have enough on your -mind, I should say." With a long drawn sigh the portly gentleman -sank upon an inverted wash tub and wrung his hands miserably. - -"Never in my life!" he mourned, "never in all my entire life!" - -Antony uttered a soothing sound, of vague but apparently -satisfactory import. - -"Not that we mind the loss of the car at all," continued the old -gentleman, more collectedly now, "only this morning his mother told -me with tears in her eyes that she had offered him the price of it -to give it up; so far as that goes, she is, as she only just now -informed me, thanking her Creator on her bended knees and begging -Him never to let us see or hear of that horrible machine again. -Ammy promised her on his honour that if anything happened to -this one, he would never buy another. It was his seventh." - -Antony's heart leaped up, but he spoke decorously. - -"It seems to me, sir," he said, "that you will, in all human -probability, never see that car again." - -"Thank God!" said his host fervently. "What is a stickpin to -Richard?" he demanded explosively, "what, in heaven's name, do I -care for a paltry fresh water pearl? It is the disgrace, the -publicity; the laughing stock--in my house they tell me, these -scoundrels are! At my daughter's wedding. Eating my food at this -moment, perhaps, Mr. Williamson warns me!" - -"This Mr. Williamson," said Antony gently, "seems to be a very keen -person." - -"The keenest," replied the old gentleman eagerly, "he is hunting -for the woman now. It is unfortunate that he is the only one of the -ushers who did not know Ammy, you see." - -"I see. It was certainly unfortunate," said Antony suavely. - -"Ammy is due in a few minutes," said the old gentleman, pulling out -a wealthy gold watch, "and here I am sitting here! I am so -overcome, you must excuse me. The five:three. I was to send -someone." - -"Can I not go, sir?" Antony asked feverishly, "just get me -somebody's trap--anybody's--and let me go to get him and save you -any further trouble." - -"Why, that is very kind, I am sure," said Gertrude's father, "I -will call the first one I see." - -There was a scurrying down the narrow stair and as the old -gentleman turned to go, a neat and very pretty housemaid rushed -towards him. - -"O sir, excuse me, sir," she cried, blushing delightfully, "but -Miss Gertrude said I was to ask you for five dollars, sir, to pay -for the C. O. D, at the station, sir. She wants it immediately. If -some one is going down, sir, could he take me?" - -With a practiced hand the father of the bride reached into his -pocket, lifted from it a thick, green bundle, and placed a bill in -the pink trembling hand held out for it. - -"This gentleman here will take you down directly, Mary--Delia--er, -my dear," he said kindly, "I don't recall his name at the moment, -but we are all very informal to-day, and I'm sure he won't object.-- -Here, boy, call me a carriage--anybody's! I'll see you later, -my dear boy, and I am much obliged." - -"Don't mention it, sir," Antony replied, and leaped nimbly into a -gorgeous station-waggon, taking his seat beside the driver. The -housemaid, displaying, as she mounted to the back seat, remarkable -hosiery and footgear for one in her humble walk of life, followed -quickly, and forth they drove. - -The blood was tingling in his fingertips, his head reeled with a -strange mixture of terror and delight--the intoxication of the -artist in dangerous adventure--but Antony's voice was level as he -inquired of the driver beside him: - -"And what's the next station up the road, do you know?" - -"Brookdale, sir, and there you can get the other road if you want -it." - -"I see. And is this the up train?" - -"Yes, sir. I suppose Mr. Amory had to go out of his way to make any -connection--the trains are poor here, sir. Mr. Ashley had to have -two specials put on for to-day. You see, Cliffwood is a small -place, sir." - -Cliffwood! Antony could have kicked himself for not -recognising in all this pomp of iron-gated villas, the scattered -collection of estates thus poetically christened. - -"That's a bad business about them murdering thieves, isn't it, -sir?" pursued the driver confidentially. - -Antony's heart sank like lead. "Murdering?" he gasped, "did the -Frenchman die, then?" - -"Oh, him!" returned the driver scornfully, "no, he didn't, the -foreign pup. How could he--that old snake hasn't a fang in his -head!" - -Antony grasped the seat beneath him and drew a long, deep breath. - -"I--I am glad to hear it," he said concisely, and as he spoke the -incoming train whistled--a mellow, pleasing note that sang of -freedom (yea, and guiltless freedom!) to wedding guest and -housemaid alike. - -Forth from the train, ere hardly it had stopped, leaped an eager -pair, a man and a maid, not too precisely attired, for their -garments were rumpled and not such as the critical in these matters -assume when bound for a wedding festival. Yet they did not seem -unhappy, these two, but rather lenient and tender in their -judgments upon all the world, for they smiled sweetly upon -the empty platform, and sweetly, if a little vaguely, upon Antony, -who advanced to meet them, hat in hand. - -"Mr. Amory, I presume?" he said airily. "I came down to get you, -but I find I must send a telegram, on account of the trains running -so poorly here, and so I will not detain you a second, as I am sure -you cannot see Mrs.--Mrs. Richard too soon. They will send back for -me." - -"Thanks, old man--are they caught?" cried the lately arrived, -making for the station-waggon, and staring at the diamond horseshoe -in Antony's pearl grey tie, Antony touched it knowingly and smiled. - -"No. They are not caught yet," he said, "but we're on the scent!" - -"Good!" exclaimed the other, "now jump in, dear," and as the last -bit of baggage left the train and the waggon turned, Antony fled -through the station and raced up the steps of the moving car, hand -in hand with the pretty housemaid. - -They seated themselves amid curious and friendly smiles. - -"I will speak when the wheels are well started," thought Antony, -and then, "when she gets her breath, I will say something," -but with each minute overwhelming embarrassment wrapped him, more -deeply, and he sat, with averted eyes, in silence. Just as they -slackened pace to pause at Brookdale and he motioned her to rise, -she spoke, huskily and with an evident effort. - -"What will you do with the chain and the pin?" - -"Put them, with all these clothes and five dollars, in the trunk, -row the three pieces across the river, meet them with a cart and -express them to Mr. Ashley from Turnersville," he answered, -promptly and with a rapid lucidity which astonished himself. - -"They will be surprised," she remarked indifferently, as she -descended the steps of the train, and: - -"It is probable that they will," he agreed. - - * * * * * - -It was some three hours later that a vehicle conducted by one horse -moved solitary under a rich and rising moon along the fair -white road that leads to one of the most venerable if not the -largest of our colleges. Dogged by its own black shadow, whose -wheels, smaller but no less symmetrical, rolled silently beside -it, this vehicle would inevitably have stirred romantic interest -in the breast of any imaginative spectator of its progress. And -this with reason, for one of its two occupants was a girl, who slept, -white-faced beneath the moon, her head, on which was perched askew a -housemaid's cap, drooped forward on her breast, her lips slightly -parted. The other, a well-dressed young man, allowed the easy-going -beast to pick its own way, the while he gazed at the sleeping face, -compassionately, it would seem, for all at once, with a pitying -exclamation, he slipped his arm behind her, and gently guided her -head to his shoulder. With a sigh of relief she nestled against him -and her face relaxed with the comfort of her new attitude, while -still she slept. Thus they drove on for many minutes, nor did his -eyes once leave that white, appealing face. So small she seemed, so -helpless--could this slender creature have stood by him so -gallantly, have matched her wits so triumphantly against the -incredible crises of the past day? Day? Antony felt that the -ordinary partitions of time had henceforth no meaning for him and -that the philosopher who questioned the validity of time itself -knew well whereof he had written. - -What a spirit the girl had! How beautiful she had looked in the -wood! He sighed, and at that or some other slight sound she opened -her eyes and gazed in terror at him. And as she gazed the terror -slowly melted and disappeared, a lovely child-like confidence grew -in its place, and she spoke softly. - -"It is you!" she said, and half awake, she smiled deliciously, -straight into his bending eyes, "you are here?" - -A great wave seemed to break in Antony's breast. - -"Here?" he cried, deep voiced, "where could I be but here--with -you? Who could be here--but me?" - -Fully awakened now, she started from him, a flood of red sweeping -her pale face as she saw where she had been resting. - -"No--no!" she stammered, "you are--we are--I was only dreaming -that----" - -With his eyes he entreated her, for their steed, spying the lights -of home, had started forward and Antony's hands were busy. - -"Ah, Nette, dearest Nette," he begged her, and something in his -voice shook her so that she trembled beside him, "if waking makes -you hate me again, then dream! For when you dream, I am sure you -love me." - -"I do not! I do not!" she cried, covering her face with her hands. - -The eager horse tugged at the bit: Antony forced her by his mere -will to meet his eyes. - -"Not?" he said, low and clearly, "Not? Not after to-day, Nette?" - -She bit her lip, and then, as the old college bell rang out nine -sharp strokes she laid her arms swiftly about his neck and his -cheek quivered under her warm soft hair. - -"You are right," she whispered, "after to-day--everything!" - -The streets were no longer empty. They sat, separate, with whirling -hearts, trembling under the mounting moon. They were in the -familiar street. . . . - -"After to-day--after to-day!" he muttered dizzily, when -suddenly she laughed out beside him, sobbed brokenly, then laughed -again. - -"To-day is the first of April!" she cried. - -And once again the polished moon threw her needless glory over -youth and love and laughter. - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Idyll of All Fools' Day, by -Josephine Daskam Bacon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN IDYLL OF ALL FOOLS' DAY *** - -***** This file should be named 42692.txt or 42692.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/6/9/42692/ - -Produced by Elaine Laizure from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries. - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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