“But of course you’ll see mother!”
“Well, I thought I might call her up,” he said evasively.
“Call her up!” Grace repeated sharply. “If you’re not going out home don’t call her! She’d never forgive you. Come and have lunch with me so we can talk.”
Roy Durland was tall and fair, a handsome young fellow, though his face might have been thought too delicate, a trifle too feminine. One would have known that as a child he had been pointed out as a very pretty boy.
“I hate like thunder bothering you, sis,” he began when they were seated in the lunch room. “But I’m up against it hard. Harry Sayles and I got a car from Thornton’s garage the other night and took a couple of girls out for a ride. It was Harry’s party,—he was going to pay for the machine. Well, we were letting ’er go a pretty good clip, I guess, when something went wrong with the steering gear and we ran smash into a barn and mussed things up considerable. Harry and Freda Barnes were on the front seat and got cut up a little. We had to wake up a farmer and telephone to Thornton to send out for us. Thornton wants fifty dollars to cover his damage and of course I’ve got to stand half of it; that’s only square. He’s pretty ugly about it and says if we don’t come through with the money he’ll take it up with the college people. Now I know, Grace,—”
“Yes, you know you have no business going on joy rides, particularly with a boy like Harry Sayles who’s always in nasty scrapes! Who’s Freda Barnes? I don’t remember a student of that name.”
“Well, she isn’t exactly a student,” Roy replied, nervously buttering a piece of bread, “but she’s a perfectly nice girl. She works in Singleton’s store.”
“That’s one girl; who was the other?”
“Sadie Denton; you must remember her; she was cashier in Fulton’s for a while.”
“No; I never heard of her,” said Grace eyeing him coldly. “You know plenty of nice girls on the campus and plenty of decent, self-respecting boys. There’s not the slightest excuse for you. I suppose Harry provided the whiskey. There was whiskey of course. Come, out with the truth about it!”