"I say, leave the motor alone!" Rodrigo shouted at once and scrambled hurriedly out from behind the wheel of the sedan, his companions following.
"And whose motor is it, may I ask?" the pretty blonde in the driver's seat came back promptly, at the same time jabbing furiously at levers.
Rodrigo was by this time at her side and, horrified, was clutching for her wrist. "Lady, lady," he cried half in fear and half in mockery. "Shut off the motor and get out quick. You're on the brink of eternity."
"Yes, Sophie, do," the other girl, slightly older and a brunette, agreed.
At first inclined to be stubborn, Sophie at length permitted herself to be helped down from her precarious perch and her companion followed, Terhune and Bond re-inforcing Rodrigo.
Thus the Oxonians made the acquaintance of Sophie Binner and Adele Du Bois, ladies of the chorus in "The Golden Slipper," the current revue at the Gayety. On the promise of stopping at the nearest garage and having the wrecked machine sent for, the girls consented to enter the sedan and be driven back to London. By the time the outskirts of the city were reached, the party was a very gay one and Sir William Newbold's Treasure Hunt was quite forgotten.
Rodrigo was especially interested in Sophie. He had at that time met very few ladies of the stage informally. The frankness, sharp tongue and cream-and-gold beauty of Sophie intrigued him. Rodrigo was rather adroit with all types of women, even at twenty. He flattered Sophie half seriously, half banteringly, exchanged bon mots, made an engagement in a low voice to see her again. Bill Terhune told her on the quiet that Rodrigo was the son of a real Count, thus increasing many fold the force of the impression the good-looking Latin had made upon her.
The Oxonians had dinner with Sophie and Adele, saw the show at the Gayety, and took the girls later to a supper club. It was the first of several parties in which Rodrigo's and Sophie's friends took part.
Having, following this adventure, made his apologies to his uncle and aunt for having left the Treasure Hunt flat, the excuse being the necessity of rescuing an automobile party in distress, Rodrigo proceeded to cultivate the further acquaintance of Miss Binner assiduously and without the knowledge of the Newbolds.
He was her constant cavalier. She taught him much—for instance, that a baby-faced blonde can possess a wicked tongue, a sudden and devastating temper and a compensating tenderness that made up for both defects. He was thoroughly infatuated at first. Then his ardor cooled as he realized that Sophie was professing to take his wooing seriously. The idea of contracting an alliance with a future nobleman seemed to appeal to her. Rodrigo did not think of her in that regard at all, and he was alarmed. He began looking for a loophole.