On the next day Jane and I looked at automobiles, starting with ones I could not aford so as to clear the air, as Jane said. At last we found one I could aford. Also its lining matched my costume, being tan. It was but six hundred dollars, having been more but turned in by a lady after three hundred miles because she was of the kind that never learns to drive but loses its head during an emergensy and forgets how to stop, even though a Human Life be in its path.
The Salesman said that he could tell at a glanse that I was not that sort, being calm in danger and not likly to chase a chicken into a fense corner and murder it, as some do when excited.
Jane and I consulted, for buying a car is a serious matter and not to be done lightly, especialy when one has not consulted one’s Familey and knows not where to keep the car when purchaced. It is not like a dog, which I have once or twice kept in a clandestine manner in the Garage, because of flees in the house.
“The trouble is,” Jane said, “that if you don’t take it some one will, and you will have to get one that costs more.”
True indeed, I reflected, with my Check Book in my hand.
Ah, would that some power had whispered in my ear “No. By purchacing the above car you are endangering that which lies near to your Heart and Mind. Be warned in time.”
But no sign came. No warning hand was outstretched to put my Check Book back in my pocket book. I wrote the Check and sealed my doom.
How weak is human nature! It is terrable to remember the rapture of that moment, and compare it with my condition now, with no Allowence, with my faith gone and my heart in fragments. And with, alas, another year of school.
As we were going to the country in but a few days, I aranged to leave my new Possesion, merely learning to drive it meanwhile, and having my first lesson the next day.
“Dearest,” Jane said as we left. “I am thriled to the depths. The way you do things is wonderfull. You have no fear, none whatever. With your father’s Revenge hanging over you, and to secrets, you are calm. Perfectly calm.”