The Motormaniacs | Page 4

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 three thousand.'
"'I can double that for you,' he said.
"'I don't want one cent more,' I said. That was just my chance to shine--and I shined.
"He made a note of it in his pocketbook.
"'That's settled,' he said.
"'Not till I've said one thing more,' I remarked, 'and that is, I shan't be horrid if the thing goes the wrong way. My dressmaker once put a hundred dollars in an oil company, and the oil company man was surer than you--and yet it went pop. I can easily tease my mare back from papa.'
"He lay back again in the hammock and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
"'Oh, Jess Hardy,' he said, 'you'll be the death of me!'--and he laughed as though it was at one of his own jokes.
"'I'd hate to make a vacancy in the wonderful old class of seventy-nine,' I said.
"'Now, I want to say something, too,' he said, getting serious again. 'If you have a pet minister who can't afford a holiday, or you