Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/139

 went on with a note of relief. "I worried about that, for now that I am wearing black I haven't a thing I could have put on. Do you mind my coming in a street gown?"

"Not at all. I—we are going out of town for dinner; I thought you'd prefer it; and dinner clothes aren't necessary." He spoke very formally, puzzled and discomforted by her self-possession.

"Then that's all right," she said cheerfully. "Do you know I had to move heaven and earth to get here, sir?"

"Really?" he asked steering the car dexterously through the traffic in Madison Square and plunging into the half-shadows of the Avenue. "How was that?" "It was not my night off and I had a regular dickens of a time convincing the city editor that I had to go. I forget whether it was a sick friend or a wedding that I offered for excuse."

"City editor?" he repeated questioningly, "what city editor? Who is he?"

"Why, the city editor of the Report, of course. That's my paper, Mr. Ames."

"Your paper?" he asked puzzledly.