rass" reminded her of
her tragic situation. I kicked myself for my tactlessness.

We skirted Riverside and joined the highway again at Beaumont where we
were unavoidably packed into the slowmoving mass. "I'm sorry," I
apologized, "but I can take a chance again at Banning and drive up into
the mountains to get away from this."

An hour later I suggested stopping for something to eat. She shook her
head. "But it's getting late," I said. "Pretty soon we shall have to
think about stopping for the night."

She raised her left hand imperatively. "Drive all night."

This would certainly solve part of my financial problem, but I was
hungry and unreasonably more irritated by her refusal of food than her
unsociability. "I have to eat, even if you don't," I told her rudely.
"I'm going to stop at the next place I see." With the same left hand she
made a gesture of resignation.

I pulled up before the roadside cafe. "Won't you change your mind and
come in? At least for a cup of coffee?"

"No."

I went in angrily and ate. Who was she, to treat me like a hired
chauffeur? A mere pickup, I raged, a stray woman found on a street. By
God, she would have the courtesy at least to address me, her benefactor,
civilly or else I'd abandon her here on the highway and return to Los
Angeles. I finished my meal full of determination and strode back
purposefully toward the car. She was still sitting rigid, staring
through the windshield. I got in.

"You know--" I began.

She did not hear me. I turned on the ignition, pressed the
starterbutton, and drove ahead.

Soddeneyed with lack of sleep and outraged at her taciturnity, I
breakfasted alone on the soggiest wheatcakes and the muddiest coffee I
have ever demeaned my stomach with. The absence of my customary morning
paper added the final touch to my wretchedness. But one would have
thought to look at my companion that she had been refreshed by a lengthy
repose, had bathed at leisure, and eaten the most delicate of
continental breakfasts. There was not a smudge on her suede gloves nor a
speck upon her small hat and the mascara on her eyelashes might have
been renewed but a moment before.

The road curved through vast hummocks of sand, which for no good reason
reminded me of the grass in its early stages. Reminded, I wanted to know
what the latest news was, how far the weed had progressed in the night.
Thoughtlessly, without remembering her interdiction, I turned the knob.
"Kfkfkk," sque