Chester went on, speaking rapidly.
"For example, if one person should tell another person that he liked that person and he didn"t really mean like at all but another word like like, only meaning something much more than like--don"t you think he ought to tell that person what he really meant? I mean, of course, providing that he had known that person months and months and knew her very well and----"
"I guess he should," she said, taking a sudden keen interest in the toe of her slipper. Chester plunged on.
"But suppose you were the person that another person had said they liked, only they really didn"t mean like but another word that begins with "l," do you think that person ought to be very frank and tell you that the way he regarded you did not begin "li" but began "lo"?"
"I guess so," she said, without abandoning the minute scrutiny of her toe.
"Well," said Chester, "that"s how I regard you, not with an "li" but with an "lo.""
Mildred did not look up.
"Oh, Chester," she murmured. He hitched his chair an inch nearer hers, and with a quick, uncertain movement, took hold of her hand. A loud slam of the front door caused them both to start.
"It"s Dad," whispered Mildred. "And he"s mad about something."
Her father, large and red-faced, entered the room.
"Good evening," he said, nodding briefly at Chester.
"Mildred, come into my study a minute, will you. There"s something I want to talk to you about."
The folding doors closed on father and daughter, and Chester was left balancing himself on the edge of a chair.
Mildred"s father had a rumbling voice that now and then penetrated the folding doors and Chester caught the words "whippersnapper" and "callow." He heard, too, Mildred"s small, high voice, protesting. She was in tears.
Presently Mildred reappeared, lacrimose. "Oh, that nasty, horrid Miss Shufelt," she burst out.
"What has she done?" asked Chester.
"The nasty old cat asked Dad to stop in to see her to-night on his way home from the office, and she told him the awfulest things about me."
"She did?" Chester"s voice was rich with loathing. "I just wish I had her here, that"s all I wish," he added fiercely.
"She said," went on Mildred, with fresh sobs, "she said--I--was--boy--c-c-crazy. And--I--never--studied--and----"
"Darn that woman!" cried Chester.
"And Dad"s--going--to--send--me--to--S-Simpson Hall!"
The idea stunned Chester.
"Simpson Hall? Why, that"s a boarding school in Ma.s.sachusetts, miles and miles from here," he gasped.
"I know it," said Mildred. "I know a girl who went there. It"s a nasty, horrid place." A fresh attack of sobs seized her.
"They"ll--make--me--do--c-calisthenics, and--they--won"t--give--me--anything--to--eat--but--b-beans."
Nothing but beans! Mildred eat beans! It was an outrage, a sacrilege.
"He"s already written to Simpson Hall," wailed Mildred. "And I have to go, Monday."
"Monday? Not Monday? Why, to-day"s Friday!" Chester"s face became resolute; he felt in his inside pocket where his envelope was.
"You _sha"n"t_ go," he declared. "You and I will elope to-morrow morning."
--3
Chester met Mildred aboard the 8:48 train for New York City the next morning.
Mildred, clasping a small straw suit-case, had misgivings. But Chester rea.s.sured her.
"Don"t worry, Mildred, please don"t worry," he pleaded. "My cousin, Phil Snyder, who is at Princeton and knows all about such things, says it"s a cinch to get married in New York. All you do is walk up to a window, pay a dollar, and you"re married. And if we can"t get married there, we can go to Hoboken. Anybody, anybody at all, can get married in Hoboken, Phil told me so."
She smiled at him.
"Our wedding day," she said, softly.
"Why are you so pensive?" he asked, after a while.
"I haven"t had my breakfast," she said. "I always feel sort of weak and funny till I"ve had my breakfast."
Chester bought several large slabs of nut-studded chocolate from the train boy. When they pa.s.sed Harmon, at Mildred"s suggestion he bought a package of b.u.t.ter-scotch. Her flagging spirits were revived by these repasts. "I could just DIE eating b.u.t.ter-scotch," she said, dimpling.
"We"ll always keep some in the house, little woman," Chester promised her, mentally adding b.u.t.ter-scotch to the menu of watercress salad, tea, ice-cream and an occasional lady-finger.
The human torrent in the Grand Central station whirled the elopers with it along the ramp and out under the zodiac dome of the great, busy hall.
They stood there, wide-eyed. "New York," said Mildred.
"Our New York," said Chester.
He steered a roundabout course for the subway, for he wanted to reach the Munic.i.p.al Building as soon as possible. He had fears, the worldly Phil Snyder to the contrary notwithstanding, that he might encounter difficulties in getting a marriage license there. And he and Mildred would then have to go to Hoboken. He had only a sketchy idea of where Hoboken was. And it was then nearly eleven.
But Mildred was not to be hurried.
"Couldn"t we have just one little fudge sundae first?" she asked. "I haven"t had my regular breakfast, you know. And I do feel so sort of weak and funny when I haven"t had my regular breakfast."
To Schuyler"s they went, and consumed precious minutes and two fudge sundaes. On the way out, Mildred stopped short.
"Oh, look," she exclaimed, "real New Orleans pralines. I just adore them. And you can"t get them in Clintonia."
Chester looked at her a little nervously.
"It"s getting sort of late," he suggested.