Dangerous Cargo (27 page)

I shall never forget their beaming faces when they saw the little suite we
had taken for them.

“Gosh! think of being able to get away by ourselves!” said Emil. “I reckon
I smashed a dozen cameras, but there were always two more for every one I
broke up!”

“But look, Emil,” said Celia, very much the little wife, “you must learn
to behave when we have to face the other passengers. Act as if we had been
married for years. Treat me with indifference. We might quarrel a
little.”

“Couldn’t keep that up,” said Emil grinning.

“Oh, well,” said Celia, “when we can’t stand it any longer we can always
come down here and be silly.”

When they returned from abroad, the question of what to do with all that
money had to be faced. Notwithstanding all Sophie’s pleading and tears, they
were determined not to live up to it. Mme. Storey suggested that after
setting aside a sum sufficient for their needs, the entire fortune should be
turned over to a Horace Laghet Foundation for the relief of need and
suffering all over the country. Emil and Celia hailed the idea with
cheers.

Thus Horace Laghet’s name is to go down to posterity as one of the
country’s benefactors. To those of us who are in the know there is a pleasing
irony in the outcome.

Les Farman showed up so well in this affair that he obtained the command
of a coastwise vessel trading to Florida. Every second week he spends three
days in New York, and is generally to be found sitting in Miriam’s apartment
grinning at her with a mixture of wonder and admiration. It must be a big
change after Martin. I believe she will marry him in the end out of
gratitude. If she does, she will discover that life is not yet over for her.
Les is capable of surprising a woman. A man of gentle nature may be less
exciting than a scoundrel, but he wears better.

Mme. Storey says: “Girls are such fools about men! If they only knew it,
it is the shy men who are the delightful rakes at heart.”