“Go to the university and then I will. I’ll show you some good times.” Then Jack gave an impatient exclamation and shot around a car that was impeding progress. “See me get through that, Betty?”
“I think you took a chance, Jack.”
“A good driver can afford to take chances, and what’s life without a few chances?”
Betty felt exhilarated in the present but she knew that Jack’s philosophy was not a good one, and none of the boys she knew would have used in her presence the exclamation which Jack had employed. He did not apologize for it, either.
But Betty and Jack had much in common after all, for both were gifted mentally and there was much in school life to discuss. Jack took her to one of the most attractive tea rooms in the city and there Betty met another boy and girl whom Jack knew. They sat at the same table and had all sorts of delectable things of a variety that only school boys and girls, hungry from their last mental efforts, would choose. There was no good opportunity to telephone. Betty decided to let it go. Probably her mother would not worry, since she knew of the orchestra practice and other things that sometimes detained Betty.
She felt hesitant about ordering at Jack’s expense, but Jack insisted on a certain choice of the different possibilities. An immense club sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate “went to the spot,” the other girl said and Betty agreed with her, though she was more reserved in her speech. Only with Carolyn and her girl friends did Betty speak impulsively. But this girl was as free with both the boys and kept them all laughing with bright if not altogether refined speeches. Yet she was quite evidently from a home of wealth and intelligence, from the correct language she used, as well as from her gay dress.
“No, I’m out of school right now,” said Mabel Randall in answer to a polite question from Betty. “Yes, Tommy, angel that you are, I could eat another sandwich with you, very small, you know. I’ll have a Swiss chocolate sundae for dessert. That is pos-i-tive-ly all!”
Both boys bought a box of candy each as they escorted the girls to their respective machines. Tommy gave his immediately to Mabel, who carelessly murmured thanks, but Jack kept his under his arm till Betty was in the roadster, when he tossed it into her lap with a “There now, how’s that for a nibble or two? I’m going to give you a whirl through the parks before I take you home.”
“Oh, that would be lovely, Jack,” said Betty. “Everything is so pretty now; but really I can’t this time. Look at your watch and see how near dinner time it is, and Mother will be worried if I am late for that. I tell you what you do, Jack. I think Father will be ready to start home about now. Suppose you take me around to his office and drop me there.” Betty was thinking that she really preferred not to go through the late afternoon traffic with Jack, at the rate he drove. This was a great idea.
Jack demurred, but said that if she really wanted to go to the office he would take her there. “But I’ll not leave you unless your dad is actually there.”