“I should say it was,” continued Joe. “Why, do you know what a man could do with that money? He could get a cozy little home and furnish it and——”
“Speaking of Reggie——” interrupted Mabel hurriedly.
“I wasn’t speaking of Reggie,” said Joe, exasperatedly. At that moment he could have wished the unoffending Reggie at the bottom of the sea.
“I know we weren’t,” said Mabel, sweetly, “but really we ought to be because I’m awfully worried about the dear boy. He’s been acting so queerly of late. Hasn’t seemed to have any appetite, and at night I can hear him walking the floor in his room. I’ve tried to get him to tell me what is troubling him, but he just says it is nothing and I can’t get any satisfaction. Then too, he’s constantly taking flying trips all over the country. He’s been away now for some time and in one of his letters he told me that he had seen you. Did he tell you what was on his mind?”
It was very hard to resist the pleading in those brown eyes, but Joe was loyal to that free masonry that makes men hang together. And besides, the little witch had been tantalizing him so, that there was a little wicked satisfaction in having the whip hand himself, if only for a moment.
“Why, Reggie seemed very much as usual,” he declared. “If he was a bit worried, it’s only what all men feel at times. I know that more than once after I’ve lost a close game I’ve been like a bear with a sore head. He’ll be all right, no doubt, after a while. Do you think he’s at home now?”
“I rather think he is,” returned Mabel, “but I’m not sure. He wrote me that he expected to get home some day this week. But you’ll have a chance to see for yourself when we get to Goldsboro. Of course, you’ll come up to our house for dinner?”
“Do you really want me to?” he asked.
“Of course I do,” she returned. “Mother will be glad to meet you again too. She’s talked a lot about you since the last time you were there. She thinks you’re such a handsome young man,” she added mischievously, for the pleasure of seeing him blush.
“By the way,” she went on, enjoying his confusion, “I’ve seen your picture in the papers so often for this last week or two.”