"
"Mind! Mind! Course not, course not! Are you warm? Let me fasten the
robe."
I confess to have felt a horrid fascination for this moment as I was
able to reconstruct it from Belknap-Jackson's impassioned words. It
was by way of being one of those scenes we properly loathe yet
morbidly cannot resist overlooking if opportunity offers.
Into the flood tide of our Saturday shopping throng swept the car and
its remarkably assembled occupants. The street fair gasped. The
woman's former parade of the Honourable George had been as nothing to
this exposure.
"Poor Jackson's face was a study," declared the Mixer to me later.
I dare say. It was still a study when my own turn came to observe it.
The car halted before the shops that had been designated. The Klondike
person dispatched her commissions in a superbly leisured manner,
attentively accompanied by the Earl of Brinstead bearing packages for
her.
Belknap-Jackson, at the wheel, stared straight ahead. I am told he
bore himself with dignity even when some of our more ingenuous
citizens paused to converse with him concerning his new motor-car. He
is even said to have managed a smile when his passengers returned.
"I have it," exclaimed his lordship now. "Deuced good plan--go to that
Ruggles place for a jolly fat tea.
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