She could have followed no surer course of goading him to comply with her wishes. Rodrigo flushed. His dark eyes shone. No woman had ever before told him thus bluntly that he was afraid of her. He accepted the dare. "I keep my car in a garage near here," he said rather curtly. "If you will wait a few moments in the lobby, I will pick you up, and we will spend the afternoon as you suggest."
They hardly spoke as he whipped the car in and out through the closely packed traffic of the uptown streets and the Queensboro Bridge. Once out beyond Long Island City, he pressed upon the accelerator and conversation became almost impossible. Long Beach was nearly as crowded as upon a Saturday or Sunday. It was by no means an exclusive resort. The children of the proletariat mingled with paunchy stock brokers and with actresses looking strangely old, with the artificial coloring washed off their faces by the relentless salt water.
Elsie and Rodrigo changed into rented bathing suits. Even in the makeshift outfit, she looked amazingly well, and he was quick to tell her so. She acknowledged the compliment with her slow, languid smile. "You are quite an Adonis yourself, as you probably know," she drawled, and raced him into the surf. They alternately swam and rested side by side upon the sand until dusk. Elise seemed to be content to act the witty, cheerful companion and Rodrigo dropped his guard and enjoyed himself. He had not known she could be so impersonally charming. This was the side of her varied personality that she had shown to John, that had enthralled him. Rodrigo could understand the attraction which she had for his friend now.
Rodrigo clasped his hands under his head, sprawled at full length upon the white sand and allowed thoughts of Dorning and Son and even of Mary to slip from his mind. He was oblivious of the world as he looked idly out into the tumbling surf, oblivious of Elise until she addressed a trivial, bantering remark to him. He turned lazily to face her and said, "You are a wonderful sport when you want to be, aren't you, Elise?"
"I should arise and make you a pretty courtesy if it weren't so warm," she replied with equal unconcern. And, after an interval, she added dryly, "You really fancy this stenographer-and-employer style of spending an afternoon in the great open spaces?"
He looked at her quickly, but he decided that she alluded not to Mary Drake in particular, but to the crowd in general that shared the sand with them, and he had to admit that there were many couples among them that seemed to answer her description.
"My tastes are simple," he said lightly. "The proletarian ideas of pleasures seem to appeal to me."
"I didn't know the European nobility had turned so democratic," she jibed.
"The Prince of Wales is our mentor. When on Long Island, do as the Prince does. But really, my title means very little, you know. And I am three-quarters an American by this time. I took out my first citizenship papers last week."
She protested at once, "You shouldn't have done that. It means that you renounce your title, doesn't it? Rodrigo, you shouldn't. Now I suppose you will marry some simple American girl, have a house in Westchester, and raise a brood of ruddy-faced little American urchins."