Page:Three speeds forward.djvu/110

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Three Speeds Forward

of grease over one eye, and rattling when he walked, and covered with tin daggers!

"May I not come part of the way with you?" asked Mr. Marsden. "It isn't right to expose these ladies to another breakdown, and possibly I might again be of assistance."

He hadn't got the words out of his mouth before papa had closed with his offer. It was snapped up like lightning. Papa had no shame left, and held on to him like a life belt. He'd hardly let him go back to his own car to order his chauffeur to follow, and was on pins and needles lest he'd never come back. And the things he said in that interval! Mr. Marsden's ears must have tingled. I never saw papa so worked up over anybody in his life, and naturally I added my little mite, and mamma threw in hers. It was a regular Marsden boom, with all of us trying to outdo the other, as though there was a prize for the one who could say the nicest things about him. Papa won easily by talking the loudest and banging on the mud guard to emphasize his

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