She nodded. “Where else? And you are to dance with me many times. Remember, I know none of the men there.”
For the first time in my life I ceased to feel scorn for an accomplishment which I did not possess. But dancing, I reflected, was of the future, and the future must provide against itself. “Margery” was very much of the present. Then abruptly it occurred to me that the present would soon be of the past if we continued to travel as we were now moving; and I promptly cut down our speed by one-half. I explained that the rest of the road to the club was dangerous at night.
She gave a little shiver. “And there is no other road?”
I remembered that there was—a longer road—and at the first turn to the right I took to it. In a way it was a safer road, and if there was an accident—what would “Edith” say?
We slipped along in silence for a while. Then I asked her if she was warm enough. It was a balmy evening, with the faintest of air stirring. She laughed.
Her amusement stung me, but I had just identified a landmark, and knew the clubhouse to be less than a mile away. So I made another brilliant sally. “I am coming to that dance!” I announced.
She regarded me with an amazement which was obvious, though I could not see her face. And then, “Will you please to tell me,” she inquired, “just when you made up your mind to that heroic act?”
After-reflection convinced me that nothing less than a criminal mistake in the mixing of my Rhine wine and seltzer was responsible for my reply. “Since I saw you,” I answered, solemnly.
“Since you saw me?” Then something in the statement, of which I was not immediately aware, appeared to impress her with its humor. She laughed.
I gave the steering wheel a vicious jerk. We sheered dangerously. She uttered a little, frightened cry, and her gloved fingers closed upon my wrist. I was absolutely certain I had short-circuited a battery wire when, her hand still resting on my arm, she pleaded: “Forgive me for laughing. I remember now that Edith said you did not dance. You are coming this evening just for me, aren’t you?”