Mayberry uttered a brief and impolite expletive. That did not trouble Mabel Skinner. She lived in a house full of rough men. Her mother was dead and an older sister kept house for the Skinners. The children of Sam Skinner had not been brought up according to the Puritan acceptance of the term. Like Topsy, they had “just growed.” “She wouldn’t ride in that flivver with you anyway,” Mabel Skinner added. “But I would.” “Jump in, then, Little Skinner,” the superintendent said, without further advertising his chagrin. “I hope my Sunday School teacher won’t see me,” the girl observed, getting in beside him quickly. “If she does she will know I am riding fast to perdition. And _do_ make your old rattle-bang go as fast as possible, Jim. I just love to scoot over the road. Gee, if I’d only been made a boy instead of a girl, I’d have been a jockey.” “Hear the girl!” chuckled Mayberry, who was really after all too good-natured to be spiteful to his guest. “You’ll be up in one of these flying machines yet.” “Oh, that would be grand! I’d go to France and join the flying corps. That girl from Texas that got over there with the first batch of Yankee soldiers--did you read about her? They got on to her and sent her back. That’s because she got married to one of the buddies. Catch _me_! I wouldn’t marry the best man alive.” “You won’t,” prophesied Jim Mayberry, still chuckling. “Smartie! Anyhow, I wouldn’t fall for any man I’ve ever seen yet. Not even Mr. Barton,” she added, as though there might be some doubt in her mind about the general manager. “Humph! who has fallen for him?” demanded the superintendent suspiciously. “Every girl in town but me,” declared Mabel Skinner promptly, but grinning impishly, “He’s an awfully nice man, is Mr. Barton.” “Yes. I’d fall for him myself if I were a girl, I guess,” Mayberry agreed. “Yes--you--would! Say, that’s my corner!” “I know. But I’m going to spin you around the reservoir and bring you home the other way.” “Oh, bully!” ejaculated the girl, fairly jumping in her seat. “I’m being run away with by a man. Never thought it would happen to me. I really wish you wasn’t so trifling, Jim Mayberry. I’d maybe sue you for breach of promise.” “Then I’m safe, am I?” he asked. “As far as I am concerned you are. I wouldn’t really marry you on a bet, Jim. Don’t you know that?” He was highly amused. Mabel Skinner’s tart tongue always delighted him. She lived in one of the poorer quarters of the town. When he finally brought the machine into her street it created a sensation. People left their supper tables to see Mabel Skinner brought home in the superintendent’s car. “What’s the matter, Mab? Broke a leg?” demanded one lout of a boy, with an impudent grin for Mayberry, and who was just slipping out of the Skinners’ gate. This was “Boots” Skinner, next younger of the clan than Mabel. “Both of ’em, or you wouldn’t catch me ruining my reputation riding home with Mr. Mayberry. Don’t tell anybody, Boots.”