The motor had been moving more slowly and the man in front after testing various mechanisms, brought the machine to a stop and climbed out. They heard him tinkering here and there and after a moment he opened the door and announced.
“Sorry, Miss Jaffray, but there’s come a leak in the tank, and we’ve run out of gasoline.”
[XIX]
LOVE ON CRUTCHES
Mrs. Pennington’s philosophy had taught her that it was better to be surprised than to be bored, and that even unpleasant surprises were slightly more desirable than no surprises at all. It was toward the end of January on her halting journey homeward from Aiken, one morning in Washington, that she saw in a local journal the announcement of an engagement between Miss Jane Loring and Mr. Coleman Van Duyn. To say that she was surprised puts the matter mildly, and it is doubtful whether the flight of her ennui compensated her for the sudden pang of dismay which came with the reading of this article. She had left New York the day after the affair at “The Pot and Kettle,” and so had only the memory of Jane’s confidences and Phil Gallatin’s happy face to controvert the news.
And when some days later she arrived in New York, she found that, though unconfirmed in authoritative quarters, the rumors still persisted among her own friends and Jane’s. Of Phil Gallatin she saw nothing and learned that he was out of town on an important legal matter and would not return for a week. When she called on the Lorings, Jane showed a disposition to avoid personal topics and at the mention of Philip Gallatin’s name skillfully turned the conversation into other channels.
To a woman of Mrs. Pennington’s experience the hint was enough and she departed from the Loring mausoleum aware that something serious had happened which threatened Phil Gallatin’s happiness. But, in spite of the warmth of Jane’s greeting and the careless way in which she had discussed the gossip of the hour, Nellie Pennington was not deceived, and by the time she was in her own brougham had made one of those rapid deductions for which she was famous. Jane looked jaded. Therefore, she was unhappy; therefore, she still loved Phil Gallatin. Phil Gallatin was working hard. Therefore, Phil was keeping straight; there must be some other cause for Jane’s defection. What? Obviously—a woman. Who? Nina Jaffray.
Having reached this triumphant conclusion, Mrs. Pennington set about proving her several premises without the waste of a single moment of time. To this end she sought out Percy Endicott, who as she knew was better informed upon most people’s affairs than they were themselves, and from him learned the truth. Philip Gallatin had been discovered with Nina Jaffray in his arms on the kitchen stairs at the “Pot and Kettle.” Percy Endicott’s talent for the ornamentation of bare narrative was well known and before he had finished the story he had convinced himself, if not his listener, that this happy event had brought to a culmination a romance of many years’ standing and that Nina and Phil would soon be directing their steps, with all speed, to church.
Mrs. Pennington laughed, not because what Percy told amused her, but because this narrative showed her that however much she was still lacking in reliable details, her earliest deductions had been correct. She would not believe the story until it had been confirmed by “Bibby” Worthington to whom Coleman Van Duyn had related it as an eye-witness, and then herself supplied the grain of salt to make it palatable.