“Humph!” groaned the Elder. He didn’t like the idea of being made a spectacle of on the public road. He knew the Warners were gossips. Of course the tale of his wild ride in the automobile would be spread broadcast all over the county. And if he had come thus far only to be too late at the bank in the end!
He opened his lips to say something tart to Janice, when she backed out from under the car again. She had a smudge across her face, one of her fingers was bleeding, and her hat and coat were rumpled. It struck the Elder suddenly that this young girl, who had every occasion to dislike him, was doing her very best to save him trouble and misfortune. He shut his mouth grimly and said nothing.
“We’ll try it again,” Janice said, cheerfully, and got into the car.
It started smoothly and soon they left the Warners’ house far behind. The speed increased until that strange exhilaration again seized upon the old gentleman. The faster they traveled the faster he wanted to travel. The bacilli of speed mania had got into his blood in some mysterious way.
His grim mouth relaxed. His eyes shone again and he could not keep his face straight. He felt that there was a grin widening on his hard countenance and he could not control it.
It wasn’t merely a facial grimace, either. He felt different inside! There had been a change enacted within him as the motor-car whisked him over the frozen road.
He was an austere man, having lived for years a strictly virtuous life, but without being touched much by that greatest grace, charity. He had nothing but a frown for the failings and weaknesses of humanity in general. He never made allowances for the natural desire of healthy human beings for amusement. His idea of a normal man was one who spent his spare hours in studying the prophecies of the Old Testament; who went to each service of the church, save, indeed, the young people’s meeting which the Elder believed was ungodly; who sat in the amen corner and responded loudly at the proper times; who worked hard all the week; who opposed everything, political and religious, that savored of progress; and who amassed money.
He had been unable to appreciate any other attitude toward life, and he disagreed with that phrase of the Constitution that spoke of “the pursuit of happiness.”
But on this afternoon there was something novel aroused in Elder Concannon. His condition of mind was a throwback into his youth. He hadn’t thought of those horse-racing days for many and many a year. He had not relaxed his grimness since long before he had given up the pastorate of the Union Church. The gentle influence of a young wife had been lost to him so long before that it positively hurt him to think back so far. Josiah Concannon had once been a different man from the being that bore that name to-day.
He had been ashamed of that old man, whenever he thought of him. Now he was not quite sure that he was right in being ashamed of him—thus did the swift ride and the stirring of his pulse affect the old gentleman.