The Adventures of a Modest Man

"If it doesn't – "

"Madness lies that way," she breathed. "Wait! Don't dare to move your foot!"

"We are approaching a station; shall I cut it?" he asked.

"No – wait! I think I have solved it. There!" she cried with a breathless laugh. "We are free!"

There was not an instant to lose, for the train had already stopped; they arose with one accord and hurried out into the silvery Harlem moonlight – which does not, perhaps, differ from normal moonlight, although it seemed to him to do astonishing tricks with her hair and figure there on the deserted platform, turning her into the loveliest and most unreal creature he had ever seen in all his life.

"There ought to be a train pretty soon," he said cheerfully.

She did not answer.

"Do you mind my speaking to you now that we are – "

"Untethered?" she said with a sudden little flurry of laughter. "Oh, no; why should I care what happens to me now, after taking a railroad journey tied to the shoe-strings of an absent-minded stranger?"

"Please don't speak so – so heartlessly – "

"Heartlessly? What have hearts to do with this evening's lunacy?" she asked, coolly.

He had an idea, an instinctive premonition, but it was no explanation to offer her.

Far away up the track the starlike headlight of a train glittered: he called her attention to it, and she nodded. Neither spoke for a long while; the headlight grew larger and yellower; the vicious little train came whizzing in, slowed, halted with a jolt. He put her aboard and followed into a car absolutely empty save for themselves. When they had gravely seated themselves side by side she looked around at him and said without particular severity: "I can see no reason for our going back together; can you?"

"Yes," he answered with such inoffensive and guileless conviction that she was silent.

He went on presently: "Monstrous as my stupidity is, monumental ass as I must appear to you, I am, as a matter of fact, rather a decent fellow – the sort of man a girl need not flay alive to punish."

"I do not desire to punish you. I do not expect to know you – "

"Do you mean 'expect,' or 'desire'?"

"I mean both, if you insist." There was a sudden glimmer in her clear eyes that warned him; but he went on:

"I beg you to give me a chance to prove myself not such a clown as you think me."

"But I don't think about you at all!" she explained.

"Won't you give me a chance?"

"How?"

"Somebody you – we both know – I mean to say – "

"You mean, will I sit here and compare notes with you to find out whether we both know Tom, Dick, and Harry? No, I will not."

"I mean – so that – if you don't mind – somebody can vouch for me – "

"No," she said, decisively.

"I mean – I would be so grateful – and I admire you tremendously – "

"Please do not say that."

"No – I won't, of course; I don't admire anybody very much, and I didn't dream of being offensive – only – I – now that I've known you – "

"You don't know me," she observed, icily.

"No, of course, I don't know you at all; I'm only talking to you – "

"A nice comment upon us both," she observed; "could anything be more pitifully common?"

"But being tied together, how could we avoid talking about it?" he pleaded. "When you're tied up like that to a person, it's per – permitted to speak, you know – "

"We talked entirely too much," she said with decision. "Now we are not tied at all, and I do not see what decent excuse we can have for conversing about anything… Do you?"

"Yes, I do."

"What excuse?" she asked.

"Well, for one thing, a sense of humour. A nice spectacle we should be, you in one otherwise empty car, I in another, bored to death – "

"Do you think," she said, impatiently, "that I require anybody's society to save myself from ennui?"

"No – but I require – "

"That is impertinent!"

"I didn't mean to be; you must know that!" he said.

She looked out of the window.

"I wonder," he began in a cheerful and speculative tone, taking courage from her silence – "I wonder whether you know – "

"I will not discuss people I know with you," she said.

"Then let us discuss people I know," he rejoined, amiably.

"Please don't."

"Please let me – "

"No."

"Are you never going to forgive me?" he asked.

"I shall forget," she said, meaningly.