When they got out of the taxicab at the Penn station there was Tad and a skinny little sleekhaired boy with him waiting to meet them. They were all very much excited and the boys’ breaths smelled pretty strong of gin. “You girls buy your own tickets,” said Tad, taking Margo by the arm and pushing some bills down into the pocket of her furcoat. “The reservations are in your name, you’ll have a drawingroom and we’ll have one.”
“A couple of wise guys,” whispered Queenie in her ear as they stood in line at the ticketwindow.
The other boy’s name was Dick Rogers. Margo could see right away that he thought Queenie was too old and not refined enough. Margo was worried about their baggage too. Their bags looked awful cheap beside the boys’ pigskin suitcases. She felt pretty down in the mouth when the train pulled out of the station. Here I am pulling a boner the first thing, she thought. And Queenie was throwing her head back and showing her gold tooth and yelling and shrieking already like she was at a fireman’s picnic.
The four of them settled down in the girls’ stateroom with the little table between them to drink a snifter of gin and began to feel more relaxed. When the train came out of the tunnel and lights began flashing by in the blackness outside, Queenie pulled down the shade. “My, this is real cozy,” she said.
“Now the first thing I got to worry about is how to get you girls out on the boat. Dad won’t care if he thinks we met you in Jacksonville, but if he knew we’d brought you down from New York he’d raise Hail Columbia.”
“I think we’ve got a chaperon all lined up in Jacksonville,” said young Rogers. “She’s a wonder. She’s deaf and blind and she can’t speak English.”
“I wish we had Agnes along,” said Tad. “That’s Margo’s stepmother. My, she’s a good sport.”
“Well, girls,” said young Rogers, taking a noisy swig from the gin-bottle. “When does the necking start?”
After they’d had dinner in the diningcar, they went lurching back to the drawingroom and had some more gin and young Rogers wanted them to play strip poker but Margo said no. “Aw, be a sport,” Queenie giggled. Queenie was pretty tight already. Margo put on her furcoat. “I want Tad to turn in soon,” she said. “He’s just out of a sickbed.”
She grabbed Tad’s hand and pulled him out into the passage. “Come on, let’s give the kids a break… The trouble with you collegeboys is that the minute a girl’s unconventional you think she’s an easy mark.” “Oh, Margo…” Tad hugged her through her furcoat as they stepped out into the cold clanging air of the observation platform. “You’re grand.”
That night after they’d gotten undressed young Rogers came in the girls’ room in his bathrobe and said there was somebody asking for Margo in the other stateroom. She slept in the same stateroom with Tad, but she wouldn’t let him get into the bunk with her. “Honest, Tad, I like you fine,” she said, peeking from under the covers in the upperberth,” but you know… Heaven won’t protect a working girl unless she protects herself… And in my family we get married before the loving instead of after.”
Tad sighed and rolled over with his face to the wall on the berth below. “Oh, heck… I’d been thinking about that.” She switched off the light. “But, Tad, aren’t you even going to kiss me goodnight?”
In the middle of the night there was a knock on the door. Young Rogers came in looking pretty rumpled. “Time to switch,” he said. “I’m scared the conductor’ll catch us.” “The conductor’ll mind his own damn business,” said Tad grumpily, but Margo had already slipped out and gone back to her own stateroom.
Next morning at breakfast in the diningcar, Margo wouldn’t stop kidding the other two about the dark circles under their eyes. Young Rogers ordered a plate of oysters and they thought they’d never get over the giggles. By the time they got to Jacksonville Tad had taken Margo back to the observation platform and asked her why the hell they didn’t get married anyway, he was free white and twentyone, wasn’t he? Margo began to cry and grinned at him through her tears and said she guessed there were plenty reasons why not.
“By gum,” said Tad when they got off the train into the sunshine of the station, “we’ll buy us an engagement ring anyway.”
First thing on the way to a hotel in a taxi they went to a jeweler’s and Tad bought her a solitaire diamond set in platinum and paid for it with a check. “My, his old man must be some millionaire,” whispered Queenie into Margo’s ear in a voice like in church.
After they’d been to the jeweler’s the boys drove the girls to the Mayflower Hotel. They got a room there and went upstairs to fix up a little. The girls washed their underclothes and took hot baths and laid out their dresses on the beds. “If you want my opinion,” Queenie was saying while she was helping Margo wash her hair, “those two livewires are gettin cold feet… All my life I’ve wanted to go on a yachtin’ trip an’ now we’re not gettin’ to go anymore than a rabbit… Oh, Margo, I hope it wasn’t me gummed the game.”
“Tad’ll do anything I say,” said Margo crossly.
“You wait and see,” said Queenie. “But here we are squabblin’ when we ought to be enjoyin’ ourselves… Isn’t this the swellest room in the swellest hotel in Jacksonville, Florida?” Margo couldn’t help laughing. “Well, whose fault is it?” “That’s right,” said Queenie, flouncing out of the shampoosteaming bathroom where they were washing their hair, and slamming the door on Margo. “Have the last word.”
At one o’clock the boys came by for them, and made them get all packed up and check out of the hotel. They went down to the dock in a Lincoln car Tad had hired. It was a beautiful sunny day. The Antoinette was anchored out in the St. Johns River, so they had to go out in a little speedboat.
The sailor was a goodlooking young fellow all in white; he touched his cap and held out his arm to help the girls in. When Margo put her hand in his arm to step into the boat she felt the hard muscles under the white duck sleeve and noticed how the sun shone on the golden hairs on his brown hand. Sitting on the darkblue soft cushion she looked up at Tad handing the bags down to the sailor. Tad looked pale from being sick and had that funny simple broadfaced look, but he was a husky wellbuilt boy too. Suddenly she wanted to hug him.
Tad steered and the speedboat went through the water so fast it took the girls breath away and they were scared for fear the spray would spoil the new sportsdresses they were wearing for the first time. “Oh, what a beauty,” they both sighed when they saw the Antoinette so big and white with a mahogany deckhouse and a broad yellow chimney. “Oh, I didn’t know it was a steamyacht,” crooned Queenie. “Why, my lands, you could cross the ocean in it.” “It’s a diesel,” said Tad. “Aren’t we all?” said Margo.
Tad was going so fast they crashed right in the little mahogany stairway they had for getting on the boat, and for a second it cracked and creaked like it would break right off, but the sailors managed to hold on somehow. “Hold her, Newt,” cried young Rogers, giggling. “Damn,” said Tad and he looked very sore as they went on board. The girls were glad to get up onto the beautiful yacht and out of the tippy little speedboat where they were afraid of getting their dresses splashed.
The yacht had goodlooking officers in white uniforms and a table was all ready for lunch out under an awning on deck and a Filipino butler was standing beside it with a tray of cocktails and all kinds of little sandwiches cut into fancy shapes. They settled down to lunch in a hurry, because the boys said they were starved. They had broiled Florida lobster in a pink sauce and cold chicken and salad and they drank champagne. Margo had never been so happy in her life.