“That’s a go then,” said Joe, and they shook hands on it.
Reggie led the way into the house, and Joe received a most cordial greeting from Mr. and Mrs. Varley. He had met them before and they had always felt most warmly toward him since the day that he had rescued Mabel from being carried over a cliff by a runaway horse. All that they had seen and heard of him since had increased their favorable estimate of him. And Joe did all he could to deepen that impression, because some day he expected to ask these kindly people for one of their most precious possessions and he wanted the answer to be the right one.
The dinner was free from all formality, for despite their wealth, the Varley home life was as simple and unaffected as Joe’s own home at Riverside. Mrs. Varley beamed upon him and told him what she thought of his rescuing the baby, while Mr. Varley was especially interested in Joe’s contract and bonus, and his chance of getting into the World’s Series. It is more than likely that the shrewd business man already saw what way the wind was blowing and guessed pretty well the nature of the question that Joe hoped some day to ask him. Reggie was gayer than he had been for a long time, now that he had determined to share his secret with his sister. And Mabel, winsome, sweet, bewitching, worked such havoc with her smiles and eyes and dimples that poor Joe was more hopelessly enslaved than ever.
Before he knew it the time had come for him to go. For just a minute he had her alone while the rest were in another part of the room. She was laughing and toying restlessly with a pair of gloves that rested on the table near which they stood.
“I want the pay for that paper you took from me this morning,” he said, assuming a stern air.
“How are you going to get it?” she bantered. “Perhaps I’m bankrupt.”
“In that case, I’ll take this glove and hold it as security,” he returned, suiting the action to the word.
She flushed adorably but made no protest, and Joe’s fingers trembled as he put the absurdly little glove in his breast pocket.
Just then a warning “honk, honk!” came from Reggie’s car, drawn up at the curb outside.
Joe, half in a daze, said goodby to his hosts, last of all to Mabel. There was no chance for more than a formal leave taking, but Joe’s heart again became unruly, for in her eyes he had seen once more the look she had turned on him in the train.