To Joe it seemed as though he had been separated from his young wife for years instead of weeks, and he drove the machine through the traffic with a speed and recklessness that caused many a burly policeman to frown disapprovingly.
“It’s them young speeders that makes all the trouble,” muttered one of them as Joe, barely waiting for the wave of his hand, rushed by with a warning roar of the exhaust. “It’s long been a mystery to me why they must always be in such a terrible hurry.” How could he know, poor man, that Joe was on his way to meet the most adorable girl in all the world? Who wouldn’t break all the speed laws, and then some, for a girl like Mabel?
It had been the purpose of the young folks to settle down in a little home of their own after the honeymoon, but as Mrs. Matson, who had never been very strong, missed Mabel and declared she needed her, the young bride had decided to make her home temporarily with Joe’s mother—at least until such time as she should be in better health.
Clara, Joe’s pretty sister and Jim’s fiancée, had also delayed her wedding with Jim because of her mother’s ill-health. Jim did not favor this arrangement very highly, but he was willing to agree to almost anything that would make Clara happy.
“It won’t be so very long now,” she had said the last time Jim had seen her. “I really think mother is getting stronger, and pretty soon—we’ll be together always,” she had added shyly.
So now, not having seen either Mabel or Clara for what seemed to them a never-ending period of time, it was no wonder the boys were willing to break all the traffic laws that had ever been made.
“Do you know,” said Joe, with a chuckle, as he slowed down at the curb opposite the station, “I’ve scarcely given dear old Reggie a thought? I wonder how the old duffer is, anyway.”
“Probably identically the same old chappie,” laughed Jim. “Monocle, cane, spats, and all complete. I’d give a lot to know how he makes that knife-sharp crease in his trousers always stay put.”
“It is a mystery,” agreed Joe, as they made their way through the crowds that thronged the great station. “I’d like to try him out on the diamond some time. I’ve a notion that after a slide or two to the home plate the crease would be no longer there.”
“Might spoil some of his immaculateness,” laughed Jim.