"Well, I do hope if you can"t get a pan that you"ll not load us up with lead pipe and such stuff," said Cora with a laugh. "I remember very well that last day at school when you came back from Beverly. My, what a sight you were! What did you ever do with the junk?"
"Indeed, it was not junk," objected Tillie, "but a lot of the very handsomest gla.s.s k.n.o.bs and bra.s.s candlesticks, and my samovar."
"You surely did not carry a samovar!" exclaimed Maud.
"Indeed I did," replied the little German, "else I should not have gotten it in the morning. I know those antique men. They are like a thermometer--go up and down with simple possibilities."
Ray was as pretty as ever, Maude just as sweet and Daisy just as gentle, while Cora and Gertrude had added new summer tints to their coloring. Adele and Tillie were still bubbling over with enthusiasm, the twins were exceptionally happy, the morning mail having brought good news--so that all were "fine and fit" when they started on the ride to the antique shop.
The day was of that sort that comes in between summer and fall, when one time period borrows from the other with the result of making an absolutely perfect "blend."
Ray had changed places with Belle Robinson, so that Belle was in the Whirlwind and Ray in the Flyaway, and when the procession was moving it attracted the usual public attention.
But the motor girls were now accustomed to being stared at; in fact, they would have missed the attention had they been deprived of it, for it was something to have a run with all girls--and such attractive girls.
"What if we should find the table at the antique shop!" suddenly said Belle to Ray. "Somehow I have a feeling--"
"Let me right out of your machine, Bess Robinson," joked Ray. "I have had all I want of "feelings" since we started on this trip. I rather think the one where the goat or sheep or whatever it was did the actual "feeling" was about the "utmost," as Clip would say. Poor Clip! I wonder what she is about just now."
"About as frisky as ever, I"ll wager," said Belle. "I never could understand that girl."
"Well," objected Bess, "it would be hard to understand any one who is only in Chelton two months at summer. If you were at school all year and came home for new clothes, I fancy I would scarcely understand my own twin sister."
"Strange," went on Ray, "that boys always so well understand a girl of that type. Now I do not mean that in sarcasm," she hurried to add, noting the impression her remark had made, "but I have always noticed that the girls whom girls think queer boys think just right."
"Pure contrariness," declared Bess. "I don"t suppose a boy like Jack Kimball thinks more of a girl just because she keeps her home surroundings so mysteriously secret."
As usual, Bess had blundered. She never could speak of Jack Kimball and Clip Thayer without "showing her teeth," as Belle expressed it.
The machines were running along with remarkable smoothness. The Flyaway seemed to be singing with the Whirlwind, while Daisy"s car had ceased to grunt, thanks to the efforts of the workman at her aunt"s place.
"What will the antique man think of three autos stopping at his door?"
inquired Adele of Cora.
"Think? Why, it will be the best advertis.e.m.e.nt he ever had. Likely he will pay us to come again," replied Cora.
The street upon which "the mahogany shop" was situated was narrow and dingy enough--the sort of place usually chosen to add to the "old and odd" effect of the things in the dusty window.
The proprietor was outside on a feeble-looking sofa. As Cora predicted, he evidently was honored with the trio of cars that pulled up to the narrow sidewalk. Tillie, with the air of a connoisseur, stepped into the shop before the little man with the ragged whiskers had time to recover from his surprise.
"Have you a warming pan?" she inquired straightaway, whereat, as was expected, the man produced almost every other imaginable sort of old piece save, of course, that asked for.
But Tillie liked to look at all the stuff, and was already running the risk of blood poison, as Cora whispered to Gertrude, with her delving into green bra.s.ses and dirty coppers.
With the same thought uppermost in their minds, Bess, Belle and Cora were soon busy examining the old furniture. There were many curious and really valuable pieces among the collection, for this man"s shop was famous for many a mile.
"Tables!" whispered Belle. "Did you ever think there were so many kinds?"
Cora approached the owner. "Have you an inlaid table--a card table or one that could be used for one? I would fancy something in unpolished wood."
"I know just what you mean," answered the man, "and I expect to have one in a few days. In fact, I already have an order for one--with anchors and oars inlaid."
Cora did not start. She winked at Bess, who was always apt to "bubble over."
"Anchors?" repeated Cora. "Set in on the sides, I suppose? Well, that would be odd. But where can you get such a piece as that?"
Cora did not mean to ask outright where the piece might be obtained; what she meant was: "That will surely be a difficult thing to find."
"Oh, there is one--some place," replied the man, little dreaming what a tumult his words were creating in the brains of the anxious motor girls. "And when I get an order I always get the article. I shall have a warming pan for this young lady by to-morrow noon."
"Then suppose I order a table, like the one with the oars and anchors?"
ventured Cora. "Could I get that?"
"Oh, no, miss," and he shook his head with importance. "You do not understand the trade. That would be a duplicate, and in furniture we guarantee to give you an original--I can only get one seaman"s card table, and that is ordered."
Cora smiled and walked off a little to gain time, and to think. Her manner told the girls plainly not to mention the matter. She would act as wisely as she was capable of doing. She overhauled some blue plates and selected a pair of "Baronials."
The man went into ecstasies, describing "every crack in the dishes,"
Maud said to Daisy, but Cora bought the plates, and paid him his price without question.
Adele and Tillie had piled up quite a heap of bra.s.s and copper, and, unlike Cora, they argued some about the cost, but finally compromised, and put the entire heap into an old Chinese basket which the man "threw in."
"Then I cannot get a table," said Cora, purposely displaying a roll of bills which she was replacing in her purse.
"Not exactly that kind," answered the man. "But something very much handsomer, I a.s.sure you. If you will call in a day or two I will show you something unmatched in all the country. A house has just sold out, and I have bought all the mahogany."
CHAPTER XXI
PERPLEXITIES
When Cecilia Thayer in her own little runabout, the Turtle, went over the road to Mrs. Salvey"s cottage, after the visit to the Hastings, her alert mind was occupied with many questions.
She had advised the mother to go to court to account for her own child, a most peculiar proceeding, but one insisted upon by a well-meaning organization, the special duty of which was to care for children. What sort of story Mrs. Salvey"s relative may have told to bring such a course about, neither she nor Cecilia knew. But at any rate a private hearing was arranged for, and now Cecilia was on her way to fetch the widow to town.
Driving leisurely along, for the Turtle could not be trusted to hurry, Cecilia had ample time to plan her own course of action, should the judge insist upon having Wren shown in court. This Cecilia felt sure would be dangerous to the extremely nervous condition of the child, and it was such a move she most dreaded.
"I will call Dr. Collins," thought Cecilia, "and have him state the facts, if necessary. But then I would have to give an account of my own part," came the thought, "and that would mean so much to me just now."
The "burr r-rr-r" of an approaching automobile startled her. She turned and confronted Rob Roland.
"Well," he exclaimed, his pleasure too evident, "this is luck. Were you going to Aunt Salvey"s?"
Cecilia was annoyed. But she had no other course than to reply that she was going to the cottage.