In sudden rage he drew himself up again, and faced the girl in the dim light.
“Let me out of here!” he demanded. “I’m on my way to help some one who’s in trouble, and I’m in a hurry to get back.”
He reached out to the door, and unfastened it, attempting to climb over Clytie’s feet, which were an intentional barricade.
“Aw, set down, you big simp, you,” yelled Clytie, giving him a shove back with a muscular young arm. “This ain’t no Sunday-school crowd, you bet yer life; an’ the girl that wrote that note is setting right ’long-side of you over there. My sister Grace! Grace Dodd. Make you acquainted. Now set down, and see if you can ac’ like a little man. We’re off for the best feed ever and a big night. Comb your hair, and keep your shirt on, and get a hustle on that grouch. We’re going to have the time of our life, and you’re going along.”
Carey was still, stern and still. The coarse words of the girl tore their way through his newly awakened soul, and made him sick. The thought that he had ever deliberately, of his own accord, gone anywhere, in the company of this girl was like gall and wormwood. Shame passed over him, and bathed him in a cleansing flood for a moment; and, as he felt its waters at their height over his head, he seemed to see the face of Grace Kendall, fine and sweet and far away, lost to him forever. Then a flash of memory brought her look as she had thanked him for taking the solo that night, and said she knew he would make a success of it; and his soul rose in rebellion. He would keep faith with her. In spite of all of them he would get back.
He lifted his head, and called commandingly: “Stop this car! I’ve got to get back to the city. I’ve got an engagement.”
The answer was a loud jeer of laughter.
“Aw! Yeah! We know whatcher engagement is, and you ain’t going to no Chrisshun ’deavor t’night. Pretty little Gracie ’ll have to keep on lookin’ fer you, but she won’t see you t’night.”
Carey was very angry. He thought he knew now how men felt that wanted to kill some one. Clytie was a girl, and he couldn’t strike her; but she had exceeded all a woman’s privileges. He gripped her arm roughly, and pushed her back into the seat, threw himself between the two unidentified ones in the middle seat, and projected his body upon the man who was driving, seizing the wheel and attempting to turn the car around. The driver was taken unexpectedly, and the car almost ran into the fence, one wheel lurching down into the ditch. The girls set up a horrible screaming. The car was stopped just in time, and a terrific fight began in the front seat.
“Now, just for this, Carey Copley, we’ll get you dead drunk and take you back to your old Chrisshun ’deavor. That’s what we were going to do, anyway; only we weren’t going to tell you beforehand—get you dead drunk and take you back to your little baby-faced, yella-haired Gracie-girl. Then I guess she’d have anything more to do with you? I guess anyhow not!”