Nogales international., 1931-08-22
SECOND lNSTALMENT
COPYRIGHT 1881
FT TIE AETEOQ

OELUlAU aNSA ALLMEN 1
Raclruif Motors hire Rowena to accom-
pany Peter on a nationwide tour in their
ye;dSter as an advertising stunt. Az the
last minute Little Bobby is engaged to act
as chaperon. They are waiting for Bobby
t. show up to make the start.
Peter himself showed TIP to good
advantage.
From ten until eleven o'clock the
photographers snapped and the re-
porters took notes. First Rowena
sat at the wheel, then Peter, then the
two together, each bravely trying to
conceal the worm of fear that
gnawed at the core of his being
fear that the chaperon had changed
her mind and would not come.
Eleven o'ciock-eleven thirty. The
reporters we're getting restive. Mr..
Rack had his watch in his hand and
Mr.. Ruff was talking business off at
one side of the room.
A taxicab pulled up at the side en-
trance and a little brown mouse OF
a girl slipped out and crept timidly
in through the rear door and sidled
up to the cashiers cage. She had to
stand on tiptoe to be seen from
within.
"Where will I find Miss Rostand ?"
she asked and her voice was a rip
ping low whisper. !.
'What name, please? Are you
from one of the papers?" asked the
cashier briskly.
"No I'm Miss Lowell--Roberta
Lowell II am the chaperon for
the motor tour" explained the little
brown mouse with a roll of brown
eyes and display of deep dimples.
ooh, Mr.. Rack" called the cashier,
there's the chaperon."
The little brown mouse looked
ready to sink into the floor i'll shy
confusion as the tide of photogra-
pliers, reporters, automobile execu-
tives and salesmen-and Rowena and
Peter, you may be sure = surged
swiftly toward her.
"The chaperon!" calculated Mr..
Rack
"The chaperon?" echoed Mr.. Ruff.
She had told Rowena she was
twenty-three years old, but standing
timidly as she did at barely five feet
two, with little brown curls framing
her dirap1ed brown face, she did not
a. first glance bear testimony to such
weight Of years. Her small hands
frt+ered nervously with gloves and
chain. Her biz brown eyes gazed
out, appalled,, and appealing, at the
crowd that surged her way.
"Are-are you Roberta Lowell. "
gasped Rowena.
mo wonder they call you Bobby"
said Peter.
Rowena rallied first. "Never mind,
never mind!' she announced with al
quick assumption of severity. his
is Bobby, and I'm the chaperon."
A few minutes later, the Kackruff
roadster swept into Broadway and
turned south, and the cheers of the
assembled witnesses ratified the plate
glass windows of the show-rooms.
"You were right, Peter" confessed
Rowena kindly, when they slowed for
the first traffic light 1--WE should
certainly have looked her over"
They were rolling steadily along
the Jersey side of the river when
Rowena and Peter had their first
argument. Rowena considered the
ideal plan for them to tear along at
a high rate of speed, stopping for
nothing until they reached the Rocky
Mountains.
And Peter didn't agree with her.
Peters idea was to drive along at a
fair speed, He said that if they tore
furiously along over roads, good and
bad, through boiling heat and chill
ing rain, they would reach point of
interest, tired, cross and worn out,
hence unable to turn out the high
class work that Raclruff had a right
to expect of them.
Rowena said that for her part she
always worked best under pressure,
that something in her responded
strongly to hard driving, and that she
enjoyed working when she was
breathless, almost painting with haste.
Peter, in that annoyingly gentle, al
most disinterestedly lazy voice of his,
said he didn't; said he couldn't work
at all unless he had a breathful of
fresh air in his lungs and quiet COM
fort in his heart
"And of course" said Rowena cut
tingly, I'VE will do it your way.
Naturally you think good pictures
are the most important part of the
whole business"
"Of course" said Peter simply.
Rowena was speechless with rage.
She was glad she had always hated
artists anyhow, it made hating Peter
now so much more natural. He was
telling himself that he was very glad
Rowena was pretty. 1t would be
pleasant painting her. He didn't care
in the least about her disposition.
This was business trip.
1t just goes to show the sort that
Peter was that he never even suS-
pected that Rowena was furious.
A sudden gulping sob close at hand
startled him from his comfortable
revery. He looked sharply at Row
ena, who sat ,rigidly erect and stony
faced beside him, blue eyes glittering
ice cold. ~
"Are-are you crying?" he asked
doubtfully.