“And Ollie, I told you so!” he added, eagerly.  “She it tall enough to wear satin!  She shall have the pale blue Empire gown—­she shall have the pale blue Empire gown if I have to pay for it myself!  And oh, what times we shall have with that hair!  And the figure—­Reval will simply go wild!”

So Reggie prattled on, with his airy grace; he took her hand and studied it, and then turned her about to survey her figure, while Alice blushed and strove to laugh to hide her embarrassment.  “My dear Miss Montague,” he exclaimed, “I bring all Gotham and lay it at your feet!  Ollie, your battle is won!  Won without firing a shot!  I know the very man for her—­his father is dying, and he will have four millions in Transcontinental alone.  And he is as handsome as Antinous and as fascinating as Don Juan!  Allons! we may as well begin with the trousseau this afternoon!”

CHAPTER III

Oliver was not rooming with them; he had his own quarters at the club, which he did not wish to leave.  But the next morning, about twenty minutes after the hour he had named, he was at the door, and Montague went down.

Oliver’s car was an imported French racer.  It had only two seats, open in front, with a rumble behind for the mechanic.  It was long and low and rakish, a most wicked-looking object; whenever it stopped on the street a crowd gathered to stare at it.  Oliver was clad in a black bearskin coat, covering his feet, and with cap and gloves to match; he wore goggles, pushed up over his forehead.  A similar costume lay ready in his brother’s seat.

The suits of clothing had come, and were borne in his grips by his valet.  “We can’t carry them with us,” said Oliver.  “He’ll have to take them down by train.”  And while his brother was buttoning up the coat, he gave the address; then Montague clambered in, and after a quick glance over his shoulder, Oliver pressed a lever and threw over the steering-wheel, and they whirled about and sped down the street.

Sometimes, at home in Mississippi, one would meet automobiling parties, generally to the damage of one’s harness and temper.  But until the day before, when he had stepped off the ferry, Montague had never ridden in a motor-car.  Riding in this one was like travelling in a dream—­it slid along without a sound, or the slightest trace of vibration; it shot forward, it darted to right or to left, it slowed up, it stopped, as if of its own will—­the driver seemed to do nothing.  Such things as car tracks had no effect upon it at all, and serious defects in the pavement caused only the faintest swelling motion; it was only when it leaped ahead like a living thing that one felt the power of it, by the pressure upon his back.

They went at what seemed to Montague a breakneck pace through the city streets, dodging among trucks .and carriages, grazing cars, whirling round corners, taking the wildest of chances.  Oliver seemed always to know what the other fellow would do; but the thought that he might do something different kept his companion’s heart pounding in a painful way.  Once the latter cried out as a man leapt for his life; Oliver laughed, and said, without turning his head, “You’ll get used to it by and by.”