be doubted. Gemmie thought he likely hadn’t told the taxi man to come at all. She thought he likely wanted to stay all night.
“It isn’t far; I’ll try to make it!” said Copeland. “I’m sorry to leave in such a rush. You’ll forgive me, won’t you?
I’ve had such a wonderful time!”
“Why, I’ll take you, of course,” said Sherrill, suddenly rousing to her privilege. “My car is right outside. Come, out this side door. We’ve time enough.”
“But you’ll have to come back alone!” he protested.
“I often do!” she laughed. “Come, we can make it if we go at once—although I wish you could stay.”
“But I mustn’t!” said Copeland. “I must get back at once. It’s important!”
He took Aunt Pat’s hand in a quick grasp.
“You have been good to let me come!” he said fervently. “May I come soon again?”
“You certainly may!” said Aunt Pat. “I like you, young man! There! Go! Sherrill’s blowing her horn. You haven’t any time to waste!”
With an appreciative smile he sprang to the door and was gone. Aunt Pat watched them drive away and then turned back with a smile of satisfaction to see Gemmie standing at the back of the hall like Nemesis, looking very severe.
“That’s what I call a real man, Gemmie!” said Aunt Pat with a note of emphasis in her tone.
“Well, you can’t most always sometimes tell, Miss Patricia,” said Gemmie primly with an offended uplift of her chin.
“And then again you can!” said Aunt Pat happily. “Now, Gemmie, you can wait till Miss Sherry comes back, and then lock up. I’m going to bed.”
Out in the night together Sherrill kept the wheel.
“I’d better drive this time,” she explained as she put her foot on the starter. “It will save time because you don’t know the way. You be ready to spring out as soon as I stop, if the train is coming.”
Sherrill flashed around corners in the dark and pulled up at the station a full two minutes before the train was due.
“I have my ticket, and my baggage is checked in the city,” said Copeland, smiling, “so this two minutes is all to the good.”
He drew her hand within his arm, and they walked slowly up the platform, both conscious of the sweetness of companionship.
“I’m coming back soon,” said Copeland, laying his free hand softly over hers again. “Your aunt said I might.”
“That will be wonderful!” said Sherrill, feeling that it was hard to find words to express her delight. “How soon?”
“Just as soon as I can get a chance!” he said, holding her hand a little closer in his own.
Then they heard the distant sound of the train approaching and had to turn and retrace their steps down the platform.
“I’ll let you know!” he said.
Somehow it took very few words to complete the sweetness of the moment. The train thundered up and they stood there waiting, her arm within his.
“I wish you were going along,” he said suddenly, looking down at her with a smile. “It’s going to be a long lonely journey, and there is a great deal I would like to talk to you about, but we’ll save it for next time.”
The train slowed down to a stop, and the few passengers from up the road came straggling out.
Copeland and Sherrill stood back just a little out of the way till the steps should be passable, and as they looked up, Mrs. Battersea hovered in sight through the car door, coming back from an evening of bridge with some friends in the next suburb.
“Isn’t that your Battledore-and-shuttlecock lady of the reception?” murmured Copeland with a grin.
Sherrill giggled.
“Mrs. Battersea,” she prompted.
“Yes, I thought it was something like that.”
The lady brought her heavy body down the car steps and arrived on the platform a few feet from them.
Copeland stooped a little closer and spoke softly: “What do you say if we give her something to talk about? Do you mind if I kiss you good-bye?”
For answer Sherrill gave him a lovely mischievous smile and lifted her lips to meet his.
Then Mrs. Battersea, the conductor just swinging to the step of the car and waving his signal to the engineer, the platform and all the surroundings, melted away, and heaven and earth touched. The preciousness of that moment Sherrill never would forget. Afterward she remembered that kiss in comparison with some of the passionate half-fierce caresses that Carter used to give, kisses that almost frightened her sometimes with their intensity, and made her unsure of herself, and she knew this