CHAPTER IV.
SMILES AND TEARS.
"Now there is no use in your arguing, Sadie--I love him and I have
given him my promise."
The two cousins were alone again speeding up Fifth avenue in an
automobile, a long-bodied foreign car that had been put at the
disposal of Mrs. Burton by the New York agent of Mr. Hogg. The Omaha
suitor for the hand of the fair Helen had also thrown in a red-headed
French chauffeur, which is travelling a bit in the matter of
chauffeurs. But as he understood only automobile English it was a
delightful arrangement for Helen and Sadie, and permitted them
absolute freedom of speech while riding behind him.
"If I had only known him longer, or had been introduced to him
differently," sighed Sadie.
"But haven't I known all about him for years?" protested Helen Burton.
"Of course, we were only school girls when he made that wonderful
rescue at Narragansett Pier. Don't you remember how we rushed down to
the beach to see him, but got there just too late? He had gone out to
his yacht or something. Oh, it was just splendid, Sadie. And he is so
wonderfully modest about it. Why, when I reminded him of his heroism
he pretended to have forgotten all about it. Just imagine Mr. Hogg
forgetting a thing like that! Do you know what Jabez Hogg would do
under similar circumstances, Sadie Burton? Well, I'll tell you--he'd
hire the biggest hall in Omaha and reproduce the whole thing with
moving pictures as an advertisement for his beef canneries."
The young girl had worked herself into a passion and was making savage
little gestures with her clenched fists.
"But what I can't understand, Helen dear, is why a man like Travers
Gladwin should make such a mystery of himself and try to avoid
introducing you to his friends. I am sure," persisted Sadie, despite
the gathering anger in her companion's eyes, "that Aunt Elvira would
not object to him. You know she is just crazy to break into the swim
here in New York, and the Gladwins are the very best of people. I
think it wouldn't take much to urge her even to throw over Mr. Hogg
for Gladwin, if you'd only let her take charge of the wedding."
"Nothing of the sort," denied Helen hotly. "Aunt Elvira is bound on
her solemn word of honor to Mr. Hogg. She will fight for him to the
last ditch, though she knows I hate him."
"Don't you think, Helen," said the younger girl, more soberly, "that
you are simply trying to make yourself look at it that way? I know Mr.
Hogg isn't a pretty man and he has an awful name, but"----
"There is no but about it, Sadie Burton. I have given my word to
Travers Gladwin and I am going to elope with him to-night. I packed my
trunk this morning and gave the porter $10 to take it secretly to the
Grand Central Station. Travers told me just how to arrange it. Oh,
there's his house now, Sadie; the big white one on the corner. It just
thrills me to go by it. On our way back from Riverside Drive we must
stop there. I must leave word that auntie insists on our going to the
opera and that I won't be able to get to him at the time we agreed."
"Oh, I _do_ wish something would turn up and prevent it," cried Sadie,
almost in tears.
"You horrid little thing!" retorted Helen. "It is dreadful of you to
talk like that when you know how much I care for him."
"It isn't that I don't think you care for him," returned Sadie with
trembling lip. "It's something inside of me that warns me. All this
secrecy frightens me. I can't understand why a man of Travers
Gladwin's wealth and social position would want to do such a thing."
"But we both have tried to tell you," insisted Helen, "that there is
an important business reason for it."
"He didn't tell what that reason was," persisted the tearfully
stubborn cousin. "You admitted he didn't give you any definite reason
at all."
Helen Burton stamped her foot and bit her lip. By this time the big
touring car was gliding through the East Drive of Central Park with
the swift, noiseless motion that denotes the highest development of
the modern motor vehicle. Fully a mile of the curving roadway had slid
under the wheels of the car before Helen resumed the conversation with
the sudden outburst:
"You don't doubt for an instant, Sadie, that he is a gentleman!"
Sadie made no reply.
"His knowledge of painting and art is simply wonderful. At that art
sale, where we met, he knew every painting at a glance. He didn't even
have to look for the signatures. You know, if it hadn't been for him I
would have bought that awful imitation Fragonard and just thrown away
two months of my allowance. Sadie Burton, he is the cleverest man I
ever met. He has travelled everywhere and knows everything, and I love
him, I love him, I love him!" In proof of which the charming young
woman burst into tears and took refuge in her vast muff.
This sentimental explosion was too much for tender-hearted Sadie. She
gave way completely and swore not to breathe another word in
opposition to the elopement. And as she felt her beloved cousin's body
shaken with sobs, she forced herself to go into ecstasies over Travers
Gladwin's manly beauty and god-like intellect. In her haste to soothe
she went to extravagant lengths and cried:
"And he must have looked heavenly in his bathing suit when he made
that wonderful rescue."
Down fell Helen's muff with as much of a crash as a muff could make
and she turned upon her companion the most profoundly shocked
expression of a bride-about-to-be.
"Sadie," she reproved stiffly, "you have gone far enough."
Whereupon it was Sadie's turn to seek the sanctuary of tears.