The Motormaniacs | Page 4

over.
"That night I didn't do anything, because I wanted to think it ever; but
the next morning I went to papa and asked him point-blank if I might
sell Gee-whizz if I wanted go. He looked very grave, and talked a lot
about what a good horse Gee-whizz was, and how hard I'd find it to
replace her. But it was one of papa's rules that there shouldn't be any
strings to his presents to me--that's the comfort of having a
thoroughbred for your father, you know--and ever since I was a little
child he had always told me what was mine was mine to do just what I
liked with. He's the whitest father a girl ever had. But he spoke to me
beautifully in a sort of man-to-man way, and was perfectly splendid in
not asking any questions. If he hadn't been such a bubble-hater, I'd have
thrown my arms round his neck and told him everything. So I let it go
at promising him the refusal of the mare in case I decided to sell her.
"Then I kited after Mr. Collenquest, whom I found in a hammock,
reading a basketful of telegrams.
"'Oh, don't get up,' I said (because he was always a most punctilious old
fellow). 'The fact is, I just wanted to have a little business talk with
you.'
"'Oh, a business talk,' he said, in a be-nice-to-the-child tone.
"'Yes,' I said, 'I thought I might perhaps take a little flyer in Great
Westerns.'
"You ought to have seen him leap out of that hammock. I quaked all
over, like Honest Labor in the pictures.
"He smothered an awful bad swear and turned as pale as a white
Panhard.
"'Little girl,' he said, 'you've been listening to things you had no right to
hear.'

"'I didn't mean to listen,' I said. 'Really and truly, Mr. Collenquest, I
didn't--'
"'You were forty feet away picking wildflowers,' he said.
"'You didn't realize how badly I wanted a Manton,' I said.
"'A Manton!' he cried out. 'What in heaven's name is a Manton?'
"It's awful to think how little some people know! I'm sure he thought it
was something to wear.
"I explained to him what a Manton is.
"'And so you must have a Manton,' he said.
"'Did you ever want anything so bad that it kept you awake at night?' I
asked him.
"He looked at me a long time without saying a word. He was one of the
kings of Wall Street and I was only a five-foot-three girl, and I felt such
a little cad when I saw his hands were trembling.
"'Jess,' he said, 'if you chose to do it you could half ruin me. You could
shake some of the biggest houses in New York; you could drive the
Forty-fourth National Bank into the hands of a receiver. You could start
a financial earthquake.'
"And he looked at me again a long time.
"'The point is,' he began once more, 'are you strong enough to keep
such a secret? Have you the character to do it--the grit--the
determination?'
"'Just watch me!' I said.
"I thought it was a good sign that he smiled.
"'Just keep this to yourself for one month,' he said, 'and I'll send you the
biggest, the reddest, the most dangerous, noisy, horse-frightening,
man-destroying, high-stepping, high-smelling --what do you call
it--Manton?--in the whole United States.'
"'Oh, Mr. Collenquest, I couldn't do that,' I said.
"Then he got frightened all over again.
"'Why not?' he demanded. 'Why not?
"'I wouldn't put a price on my secrecy,' I said. 'That wasn't what I meant
at all, only I thought you might be good-natured enough to let me in on
the deal--with a margin on Gee-whizz, you know.'
"'I suppose I am getting old,' he said, 'and getting stupid--but would you
mind explaining to me what you want in words of one syllable?'
"'You wanted to put papa on a good thing,' I said. 'He wouldn't have it,

so I thought you might pass it along to me,
"'You seem to have passed it along to yourself,' he remarked, a bit
ironically.
"'It's a very small matter to you,' I pleaded, 'but it's a whole Manton to
me.'
"'And the shock nearly killed father,' he said, mopping his bishop
forehead.
"'I can make papa give me four hundred and fifty dollars for
Gee-whizz,' I said; 'and the question is, is that enough?'
"'Enough for what?' he asked.
"'For a Manton, of course,' I said.
"'Would you mind putting it in figures instead of gasoline?' he said,
laughing as though he had made an awfully good joke. I laughed,
too--just to humor him.
"'Well,' I said, 'with acetylene lamps, top, baskets, extra tires, French
tooter, freight, insurance, spare tools and a leather coat--say