Sabrina is married and goes on her wedding trip. Her comments on London and how her husband suppressed several professional gamblers on board the steamer. The two expect to spend some time in England, where we will leave them.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sabrina was married to Wilbur the day after the Friar Festival and we acted in the capacity of best man and were very much in evidence in the feast that followed. We imprinted chaste salutes on the lips of the blushing bride until the groom tore us asunder. After the festivities Sabrina and Wilbur disappeared and for the past ten days their favorite cafes and loafing places have known them not. We were just beginning to get nervous when the postman brought the following letter:
"London.
"Dear Party—I guess maybe when you pipe off this effusion you will throw a foaming fit and fall in it. Me and Wilbur are now in the city of fogs and take it from me, it's a bum habitation for even a dog.
"After you and the rest of the gang did the shoot the chutes under the table at the wedding breakfast me and his nobs grabbed our make-up boxes and took it on the lope for the ferry station. I thought we were going to take a wedding tour to Asbury Park or some of the other watering places, but what does Wilbur do but sidestep the ferry proposition and we go prancing up to a dock where a boat about nine miles big was hitched and before I had time to give the office to the cop on the beat Wilbur rushes me up the plank and into the outfit. Honest, it was bigger than any of the Coney Island boats. I was under the impression for the nonce that it was the night boat up the Hudson but I didn't see a steward I knew.
"A guy who had enough gilt on to be a Major-General in the National Guard came floundering up and Wilbur gave him his real name and the wop said, 'This way, please, threw us into a young elevator and we went up a couple of stories and along a hall until we came to a door which the gee threw open and said, 'This is your stateroom.'
"Honest, I never saw such a drum. A great big room with a real bed instead of those shelve things and off of the room a bath, and we were only to be on the water five days. Can you beat it? I was the one surprised pup and as soon as I hung my 'Merry Widow' on the gas jet I asked Wilbur about it.
"He says, 'Kid, we are on the ferry to Europe and we are going to spend our honeymoon across the pond.' I says, 'not for little Sabrina; you don't get her out of sight of New York,' and made a stab for the rail. By the time I got to it we were in the middle of the creek and nothing in sight but a flock of tugboats and a bunch of yaps waving their mitts on the dock. Take it from me, if I hadn't been a bride I would have cut up something scandalous, but it was too early in the matrimonial game to start any lumpy work. So all I did was to sit and pout, 'cause I know I can always make a hit when I flash the pouting number.
"Gee, what could I do? Out there in the middle of the water with a long, slushy walk back to the dock. So I did the next best thing and gave the high sign to the steward to kick in with a few refreshments, which he very graciously did.