The soft air which blew upon Gail’s cheek was like the first breath of spring, and there was the far-off prophecy of awakening in the very sunshine, as she sped out the river road with Allison in his powerful runabout. For days the weather had been like this, mild and still invigorating, and it had been a tremendous rest from the protracted crispness of the winter. There was the smell of moist earth, and the vague sense of stirring life, as if the roots and the seeds, deep in the ground, were answering to the thrill of coming birth.
“It’s glorious!” exclaimed Gail, her cheeks answering to the caress of the air with a flush of blossom-like delicacy. She was particularly contented to-day. Allison had been so busy of late, and she had missed him. With all his strength, he was restful.
“I feel like a new man at this time of the year,” returned Allison, glancing at Gail with cool appreciation. A car full of men passed them, and the looks they cast in his runabout pleased him. “Gail, do you remember the first time we drove out here?”
“Indeed yes,” she laughed. “With the snow in our eyes, and the roads all white, with the lights gleaming through the flakes like Arctic will-o’-the-wisps. We ran away that night, and dined at Roseleaf Inn, and worried the folks to death, for fear we had had an accident.”
“I had more than an accident that night,” said Allison. “I had a total wreck.”
Gail glanced at him quickly, but his face was clear of any apparent purpose. He was gazing straight ahead, his clean-cut profile, always a pleasant thing to look upon, set against the shifting background of rocky banks as if it were the one steadfast and unalterable thing in the universe; and he was smiling introspectively.
“It was about here that it happened,” he went on. “I think I’d been bragging a little, and I think you meant to slyly prick my balloon, which I will admit seemed a kind and charitable thing to do.”
“What was it?” wondered Gail, trying to recall that unimportant conversation.
“Oh, a gentle intimation that I hadn’t done so much,” he laughed. “I had just finished consolidating all the traction cars in New York, subways, L’s, and surface: and I felt cocky about it. I even remarked that I had achieved the dream of my life, and intended to rest a while. All you said was, ‘Why?’” and his laugh pealed out. Four birds in a wayside bush sprang into the air and flew on ahead.
“I used to be conspicuous for impertinence,” smiled Gail. “I’m trying to reform.”