CHAPTER XV POSTSCRIPT

"Don't drive so fast Don! It makes my hair rise the way you take these curves!"

"I'll try to remember ... Lord! but it's good to have an accelerator under your big toe again! ... This lil' ole bus is about all I own, Pen!"

"You'll soon get a fresh start, now ... You're driving just as fast as ever!"

"Sorry! I feel as if that mob was still behind us. Wasn't it ghastly!"

"But they were friendly!"

"Oh, friendly! Three days ago they would just as lief have strung me up to a lamp-post. I could feel it in the court-room."

"Well, don't you suppose it was a feeling that they had been unjust to you that made them cheer so to-day when you appeared?"

"I hope so. I don't trust mobs ... Lord! when I came out and saw them massed in the street from curb to curb ... thousands! ... I could feel myself turning pea-green! I had no idea I had become so famous."

"They have been reading about nothing else for days."

"What a lot of idle people there must be!"

"I don't think it's idleness altogether. But nothing ever happens to them. They only live in the newspapers."

"A good many cars followed us out of town. When they saw which way we were heading I suppose they'll wire the news, and cheering crowds will be waiting for us..."

"Oh, Don!"

"I'll fool 'em! I'll circle around outside Philadelphia and all the big towns."

"It's horribly immoral our running off together in a car."

"Oh, what do morals matter after what we've been through together! ... We couldn't get married in New York with that mob at our heels. We can get hitched up wherever we happen to stop I suppose."

"You take it coolly!"

"I take it as a matter of course ... Shouldn't I?"

"I don't want to be rushed into it!"

"Pen! ... Have you any doubts of me?"

"No! How can you say such a thing!"

"Then what is it? ... What brings the tears to your eyes, dearest?"

"Nothing! ... Only I want to be quiet when I am married! ... I want to be quiet! ... Things are still roaring about me!"

"Would you like me to take you home first?"

"No! I don't want you to leave me!"

"Look out! You'll have us in the ditch! ... What is it, dearest? It's immoral our going away together. But you don't want to marry me yet. But I mustn't leave you either!"

"Oh, don't expect me to talk reasonably! ... I don't want to talk ... Marry me whenever you like, but don't talk about it ... I just want to be quiet ... with you!"

"Suits me! I'll bring you to quiet. I know a little place in the Virginia foothills ... Oh, my Pen! ... Look behind us!"

"Why?"

"Is there anybody in sight?"

"No!"

"I'm going to stop for a moment. Do you realize I haven't kissed you yet?"



THE END