If Jessie had turned her fair head to look back as she drove off so triumphantly with her handsome escort, she would have seen Carey Doyle scrambling up from the gutter where he had landed after his animated encounter with Laurier, and shaking his fist after her malevolently, while curses low and deep shrilled over his lips, and his eyes blazed with a baleful light that boded no good to those who had aroused his jealous anger.
Brushing the soil of the gutter from his flashy suit, he shambled across the pavement and back into the house from which he had been so vigorously ejected.
Madame Barto herself met him on the threshold, and drew him in, exclaiming hoarsely:
“Why, Carey, what is the meaning of this? I was just coming into the hall to see Jessie off on her drive, when I beheld her struggling in your arms, and the next moment Mr. Laurier grasped you and sent you spinning down the steps like a top!”
“Laurier! Is that his name, curse him?” grumbled Doyle, rubbing his knee which seemed to have been crippled by the fall, and continuing excitedly, “It was this way, Aunt Barto: I fell in love with pretty little Jessie the minute I clapped my eyes on her yesterday, the beggarly little minx, and when I did her the good turn to send her to you, of course I meant to have my innings for the good deed. This afternoon I spruced up in my very best and came to take her for a walk, but as soon as I came in and asked her, she tossed up her yellow head like a princess and said she had another engagement. My temper flared up and I said she should go with me and give me a kiss into the bargain, but when I grabbed her she fought like a little cat, and then that dandy rushed in like a whirlwind, caught me up with the strength of ten men and pitched me down the steps, rolling me into the gutter and nearly breaking every bone in my body, ugh!” with another groan.
“But, Carey, I thought you were courting that little Jewess, Yetta Stein.”
“So I am, and have bought the ring, but it’s all up with that since I’ve seen Jessie. Besides, Yetta’s family were bent on making me embrace the Jewish religion before the knot was tied, so I can refuse to do it and break off that way.”
“You mean to say you’ll throw over the match with the rich pawnbroker’s daughter for the sake of this beggar, Jessie?”
“Yes, I will. I wasn’t thinking at first of marriage, only having some good times with her, but now that dandified Samson has showed up I’ll take her from him if I can, just to break his heart as he tried to break my neck. Curse him!”
“Oh, pshaw, Carey, it’s nonsense of you to think of competing with a rich young millionaire like Frank Laurier. Why, he never saw her before to-day, and he must have become quite fascinated with her at first sight, for he invited her to drive with him in the park this afternoon.”