Isabelle confessed that she had informed her mother "in a pin-cushion note" that she had eloped with Jerry. She pointed out to him that, after this public announcement of her intentions, it would be necessary for him to marry her, "to save her honour" as she phrased it. He laughed, brutally. He inquired her age, and when she boasted that she was "going on seventeen"--that many girls were "wooed and married and a'," by that time--he laughed again. When, however, she persisted in the idea, and declared her love for him, he talked to her like a disagreeable elder brother, casting reflections upon her breeding and her manners. He told her that she was a silly little thing, that she did not amuse him in the least, and that it was high time she began to conduct herself like a lady. He began to address her, coldly, as Miss Bryce. She appealed to him, coquetted with him, abused him; all to no effect. He remained formal and distant during the entire journey. She was deeply hurt and humiliated by his actions, but on the whole she got considerable satisfaction out of the role of blighted being. They both concentrated upon the end of the trip. Jerry longed to be rid of his unwelcome responsibility, and Isabelle was interested because she had arranged a coup for the moment. Wally had assured Jerry, by wire, that a teacher from the school would meet Isabelle at the station. Isabelle, in the meantime, had wired Miss Vantine that a change of plans made it unnecessary for the teacher to meet the train. She signed the telegram with her father's name. She awaited the moment when Jerry realized that he was not to be rid of her, with considerable excitement. Arrived in New York at ten o'clock, she preserved a demure silence while he stormed up and down the station looking for the teacher. He was finally convinced that there was no one to meet them. "What are you going to do with me?" she asked. "Come along," he replied, ungraciously, bundling her into a cab. They went to a studio building and Jerry pounded on somebody's door for ten minutes, in vain. Then he tried another. "None of your friends care to see us, Jerry," grinned Isabelle. Finally he unlocked a door and turned on a light. "This is your place, Jerry," she cried; and she began a swift inspection. "You can turn in here for the night, and in the morning I will take you to the school." "Where will you sleep?" "At a club." "And leave me in this spooky place alone? I won't stay." "Don't you see that I cannot take you around town at this hour of the night looking for lodgings?" "I'll go in the bedroom, and you can sleep on the couch. I won't stay here alone." Eventually he telephoned a friend of his, named Miss Jane Judd. He invited her to stay with Isabelle. He even went and brought her and explained to her that he would call for Isabelle in the morning.