“Yes, you should have,” said Eveley gravely. “I would have told you honestly if I did not wish it. I said you must feel free to ask me for anything, didn’t I. And don’t I always mean what I say—to you, at least?”
“Does your love for Americanization carry you so far?” asked Marie curiously.
Eveley was silent a moment. “I can not exactly count you Americanization,” she said honestly. “I do not believe Americanizing you could add anything to your sweetness, anyhow. You are just fun, and—You may not believe it, Marie,” she added rather shyly, for she was not a demonstrative girl, “but I—really I love you.”
Quick tears leaped to Marie’s dark eyes, and she placed her head softly against Eveley’s shoulder, though she did not speak. Almost instantly Eveley brushed away the wave of sentiment and gave her quick bright laugh.
“Now listen, sweetness,” she said. “It is like this. This is the clutch that controls the gears. When it wabbles like this it is in neutral and the car will not run. When you shove down with your left foot, and pull the clutch to the left and backward, it is in low gear, and the car will go forward when you let your foot back. You must do it very slowly, so there will be no pull nor jerk. Like this.”
So the afternoon wore away, the two girls laughing gaily as Marie made her first bungling attempts to drive; but later, Marie was aglow with exultation and Eveley with deep pride, because the little foreigner showed real aptitude for handling the car.
Then in a lovely quiet part of the beach a little beyond La Jolla, they had an early supper and drove home, Eveley at the wheel, singing love songs, Marie humming softly with her.
“This is almost like sweethearting, isn’t it?” asked Eveley turning to look into the dark eyes fixed adoringly upon her. “Next to Nolan you satisfy me more than anything else in the world. But don’t tell Nolan. He is jealous of you,—he thinks I like you better than I do him.”
“You say you love me, Eveley. But do you? Is it the kind of love that can understand and sympathize and forgive—yes, and keep on loving even when—things are wrong?”
“Nothing could change my feeling for you, Marie,” said Eveley positively.