Page:My Dear Cornelia (1924).pdf/228

 yesterday. I asked him why he hadn't told me at the time, since we two were on the square with each other. He said that he was afraid of setting me a bad example! Oh, the poor little devil! The poor little devil!"

Willys said it was "a damn shame" and they must see what they could do to get the charge of driving while drunk withdrawn and the charge of exceeding the speed limit substituted. Then we shook hands. Oliver and Willys got out, and I went on to the railway station. I hated not to stand by and see the thing through. But Oliver had assured me that I couldn't really do anything but stand by; and as I had a speaking engagement in Ohio on the next day, and my college work began the day after, I surrendered to the necessity of the situation. My holiday was over.

I started westward with little eagerness—with an odd sensation of repletion and fatigue mixed with cerebral excitement. "The starved silkworm," I muttered to myself, "has had his feast of mulberry leaves." I was not sleepy and didn't wish to spend the small hours of the morning tossing in my berth. I went into the empty dressing-room for a smoke. As I hung up my over-