Mr. Carr gazed calmly around and twisted his mustache with a satisfied and retrospective smile.
"That"s very decent of you, Yates; you must pardon me; I was naturally half scared to death at first; but I realize you are acting very handsomely in this horrible dilemma----"
"Naturally," interrupted Yates. "I must stand by the family into which I am, as you know, destined to marry."
"To be sure," nodded Carr, absently; "it really looks that way, doesn"t it! And, Yates, you have no idea how I hated you an hour ago."
"Yes, I have," said Yates.
"No, you really have not, if you will permit me to contradict you, merry old Top. I--but never mind now. You have behaved in an unusually considerate manner. Who the devil are you, anyway?"
Yates informed him modestly.
"Well, why didn"t you say so, instead of letting me bully you! I"ve known your father for twenty years. Why didn"t you tell me you wanted to marry Drusilla, instead of coming and blushing all over the premises? I"d have told you she was too young; and she is! I"d have told you to wait; and you"d have waited. You"d have been civil enough to wait when I explained to you that I"ve already lost, by marriage, two daughters through that accursed machine. You wouldn"t entirely denude me of daughters, would you?"
"I only want one," said John Yates, simply.
"Well, all right; I"m a decent father-in-law when I"ve got to be. I"m really a good sport. You may ask all my sons-in-law; they"ll admit it."
He scrutinized the young man and found him decidedly agreeable to look at, and at the same time a vague realization of his own predicament returned for a moment.
"Yates," he said unsteadily, "all I ask of you is to keep this terrible n-news from my innocent d-daughters until I can f-find out what sort of a person is f-fated to lead me to the altar!"
Yates took the offered hand with genuine emotion.
"Surely," he said, "your unknown intended must be some charming leader in the social activities of the great metropolis."
"Who knows! She may be m-my own l-laundress for all I know. She may be anything, Yates! She--she might even be b-black!"
"Black!"
Mr. Carr nodded, shuddered, dashed the unmanly moisture from his eyegla.s.s.
"I think I"d better go to town and tell my son-in-law, William Destyn, exactly what has happened to me," he said. "And I think I"ll go through the kitchen garden and take my power boat so that those devilish reporters can"t follow me. Ferdinand!" to the man at the door, "ring up the garage and order the blue motor, and tell those newspaper men I"m going to town. That, I think, will glue them to the lawn for a while."
"About--Drusilla, sir?" ventured Yates; but Mr. Carr was already gone, speeding noiselessly out the back way, through the kitchen garden, and across the great tree-shaded lawn which led down to the boat landing.
Across the distant hedge, from the beautiful grounds of his next-door neighbor, floated sounds of mirth and music. Gay flags fluttered among the trees. The Magnelius Grandcourts were evidently preparing for the brilliant charity bazaar to be held there that afternoon and evening.
"To think," muttered Carr, "that only an hour ago I was agreeably and comfortably prepared to pa.s.s the entire afternoon there with my daughters, amid innocent revelry. And now I"m in flight--pursued by furies of my own invoking--threatened with love in its most hideous form-- matrimony! Any woman I now look upon may be my intended bride for all I know," he continued, turning into the semiprivate driveway, bordered heavily by lilacs; "and the curious thing about it is that I really don"t care; in fact, the excitement is mildly pleasing."
He halted; in the driveway, blocking it, stood a red motor car--a little runabout affair; and at the steering-wheel sat a woman--a lady"s maid by her cap and narrow ap.r.o.n, and an exceedingly pretty one, at that.
When she saw Mr. Carr she looked up, showing an edge of white teeth in the most unembarra.s.sed of smiles. She certainly was an unusually agreeable-looking girl.
"Has something gone wrong with your motor?" inquired Mr. Carr, pleasantly.
"I am afraid so." She didn"t say "sir"; probably because she was too pretty to bother about such incidentals. And she looked at Carr and smiled, as though he were particularly ornamental.
"Let me see," began Mr. Carr, laying his hand on the steering-wheel; "perhaps I can make it go."
"It won"t go," she said, a trifle despondently and shaking her charming head. "I"ve been here nearly half an hour waiting for it to do something; but it won"t."
Mr. Carr peered wisely into the acetylenes, looked carefully under the hood, examined the upholstery. He didn"t know anything about motors.
"I"m afraid," he said sadly, "that there"s something wrong with the magne-e-to!"
"Do you think it is as bad as that?"
"I fear so," he said gravely. "If I were you I"d get out--and keep well away from that machine."
"Why?" she asked nervously, stepping to the gra.s.s beside him.
"It _might_ blow up."
They backed away rather hastily, side by side. After a while they backed farther away, hand in hand.
"I--I hate to leave it there all alone," said the maid, when they had backed completely out of sight of the car. "If there was only some safe place where I could watch and see if it is going to explode."
They ventured back a little way and peeped at the motor.
"You could take a rowboat and watch it from the water," said Mr. Carr.
"But I don"t know how to row."
Mr. Carr looked at her. Certainly she was the most prepossessing specimen of wholesome, rose-cheeked and ivory-skinned womanhood that he had ever beheld; a trifle nearer thirty-five than twenty-five, he thought, but so sweet and fresh and with such charming eyes and manners.
"I have," said Mr. Carr, "several hours at my disposal before I go to town on important business. If you like I will row you out in one of my boats, and then, from a safe distance, we can sit and watch your motor blow up. Shall we?"
"It is most kind of you----"
"Not at all. It would be most kind of you."
She looked sideways at the motor, sideways at the water, sideways at Mr.
Carr.
It was a very lovely morning in early June.
As Mr. Carr handed her into the rowboat with ceremony she swept him a courtesy. Her ap.r.o.n and manners were charmingly incongruous.
When she was gracefully seated in the stern Mr. Carr turned for a moment, stared all Oyster Bay calmly in the face through his monocle, then, untying the painter, fairly skipped into the boat with a step distinctly frolicsome.
"It"s curious how I feel about this," he observed, digging both oars into the water.
"_How_ do you feel, Mr. Carr?"
"Like a bird," he said softly.
And the boat moved off gently through the sparkling waters of Oyster Bay.