V A Dangerous Train
There were other meetings on that ten-thirty train, until Doctor Rem showed a very moody face at the house of his friend Jarn, one day.
“Doesn’t she come to pound the piano any more?” asked he of Bell-Bell.
“Certainly.”
“What!”
“Certainly.”
“Then she must take another train!”
“Yes, the ten-twenty.”
“Just to avoid me!”
“I am perfectly amazed at the moral turpitude which you and she have at this moment disclosed. Sir, you have been meeting on the trains!”
“One train, please,” grinned Rem, “the ten-thirty.”
“And you have both kept this a secret from me!”
“Certainly,” said Rem, in his turn. “You were against me from the first. Do you suppose that I am going to put my plans into the hands of my enemies?”
“Plans!” shrieked Bell-Bell. “Plans! About her! A Quaker! Doctor Rem, I demand to know what your plans are!”
“Well, I don’t exactly know myself. I didn’t quite mean to say plans. It slipped out. But I suppose if I were let alone I would do something—very—very foolish,” sighed the physician.
At this point Bell-Bell broke into a long laugh.
“Oh, what babes! You are both under the impression that you have fooled me. Why, you old brute, any one could tell that you were seeing her if by no other way than your gentleness. She has been good for you. She will continue to be good for you. I have long ago seen that that is the solution. You must marry a Quaker. She will both steady you and make you respectable. And if you are hunting a Quaker—well, I shouldn’t wonder if you have found one. For the only reason she gave for changing from the ten-thirty to the ten-twenty was that it was a dangerous train!”
They laughed together.
“And it is, poor girl! Though, I confess, until you told me just now, I thought the danger was in the railroad.”
“Do you really think I was the danger?” asked Rem, happily.
“John, dear,” said Bell-Bell, “you are a very foolish wooer.”
“Who said I was a wooer?” demanded the young physician.
“No one but me, unfortunately,” said Mrs. Jarn.
“Not me, be hanged!”
“No, not you. Therefore, go away and stop bothering me. I have better things to do—and better persons than you to see. After all, she has not saved the brute—only helped the wolf to put on lamb’s clothing. Run along!”
“If you make me angry,” threatened John Rem, “I swear I will come down town on the ten-twenty to-morrow.”
“I will telephone the fact to her.”
“Then I’ll take every train there is.”
“How busy you will be on that day at least! Run away, boy.”
“And if you make me very mad, I’ll marry her—just to spite you!”
“Poor girl! Please get very mad. No, no, no! I mean don’t. Go away! You are a dog in the manger. Go.”