"And to-morrow," said Adele, between mouthfuls of morsels, "we shall have to decorate for the fete. I am going to do the Whirlwind all my own way, am I not, Cora?"
"You certainly may," replied Cora vaguely. "I am the poorest hand at decorating. I prefer driving."
And they all wondered why she took so little interest in the preparations for the fete.
"I know," whispered Bess. "You are thinking of that little mahogany man. And so am I. I can"t just wait to see the table."
Bright and early, the next morning the girls were astir. They had need to be "up with the lark," for the gathering of stuffs with which to decorate cars is quite a task, and they planned to make the fete a memorable affair, as Belle put it.
"Wait till Cora comes down," said Tillie. "Won"t she be surprised that I have already been over the meadow, and gotten so many beautiful, tall gra.s.ses!"
Mrs. Bennet appeared at that moment.
"My dears," she began, "I have a surprise for you. Cora has taken a run home--she really had to go, but she will be back by nightfall.
Now, there," to Daisy, "you must not pout. Cora has been a faithful little captain, and, from what I understand, there have been a great many things to demand her attention at home. Go right on with your plans, and make her car the very prettiest, and when she gets back she will have some reason to be proud of her allies. I have arranged to be at home all day, and to do whatever I can to a.s.sist you, in Cora"s place."
The girls were utterly surprised, but what could they say? Show displeasure to so affable a hostess? Never!
What they thought was, of course, a matter of their own personal business.
CHAPTER XXV
A WILD RUN"
"Speed her up, Tom," ordered Dr. Duncan Bennet to his chauffeur, as he and Cora started out that bright, beautiful morning. "We will have all we can do to cover the ground and make home by nightfall."
"Without a single stop," remarked Cora, "I calculated we could do it.
Do you think there is any possibility of us failing to get back?"
"Tom knows no end of short cuts," said Duncan, settling himself down comfortably. "We take quite a different route to that which you girls came over."
"Oh, yes, of course. We could never get to Chelton and back in one day over the roads which we came by," replied Cora.
"The one controlling thought is," said the young physician, "that an automobile is not a camel. No telling when its thirst will demand impossible quenching. But this is a first-rate car," he went on, "and it has never gone back on me yet."
"It rides beautifully," agreed Cora, as the machine was speeding over the roads like the very wind. "After all, I do believe that an experienced chauffeur is a positive luxury."
"Now, now!" exclaimed Duncan. "Don"t go back on your const.i.tution.
You will have to report, I suppose. What do you imagine our little girls are thinking and doing about now?"
Cora laughed. Duncan seemed amused at the idea of "stealing" the captain of the club--he liked nothing better than a "row" with girls.
"Well, I suppose," said Cora cautiously, "that they are scouring Breakwater for things to decorate the machines with. I am glad that I entrusted the Whirlwind to Tillie--she is so artistically practical that she will be sure to avoid making holes in the car to stick bouquets in."
"The fellows will be up to-night. They have taken rooms at the Beacon.
There"ll be no end of a rumpus if they strike Breakwater, and I am not there to pilot them."
"Likely our girls would attempt to put them to rights," said Cora, joking. "Just fancy a crowd of students, and those silly girls."
"It is well that they can"t hear you," remarked Duncan. "Of course, you are very--very sensible."
"You mean--I should not have come?" she said, her face flushing.
"Oh, indeed, I meant nothing of the sort," he hurried to explain. "In fact, I never could have carried out my plan if you had not come along.
I am going to bring Clip out for the meet."
"Oh, wouldn"t that be splendid!" exclaimed Cora. "If only we can manage it. But she is always so busy--"
"Then I intend to make her stop work for a few days at least. I want my brother to meet her, and this--well, quite an opportunity."
Cora looked at the earnest young man beside her. "Clip is worth knowing," she said simply. Then she added: "I wonder if we could arrange it to have Hazel come? It would be just glorious to have the club complete after all our little drawbacks. If her brother is better I will not take "no" for an answer. I shall simply insist upon Hazel coming."
Cora was aglow with the prospects--if only everything would go along smoothly and no other "drawback" should occur.
"Your friends are from Exmouth, aren"t they?" asked Duncan. "I ought to know some of them; we played their team last year."
"Oh, do you know Ed Foster? And Walter Pennington?" asked Cora.
"I happen to remember their names," said Duncan. "I would be glad if we could manage to have them come out to the show. Let me see. How could we fix it up?"
"Jack has a car, and so has Walter," replied Cora, while the chauffeur looked at his speedometer and noted that they were doing twenty-five miles an hour.
"Then," said Duncan, "if we can fix it--But that observation case will take quite a little time."
"You can attend to your case, and get Clip," said Cora with a mischievous smile, "and I will attend to the boys."
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Duncan. "You are ready and willing to make the "round up." Well," and the car gave an unexpected b.u.mp that almost threw Cora over into her companion"s arms, "I would like first rate to have them all come to Breakwater, and our fellows would count it the best part of their vacation to have an auto run of that kind. If we find everything all right out in Chelton we will call a special meeting of the motor girls, the girls being you, and the motor boys being me, and then we will come to the quickest decision on record."
Cora was arranging her goggles and veil. The speed of the car was playing sad havoc with her costume, and she was not too independent to want to look well when she got into her home-town.
"Look out, Tom!" called Duncan to his man. "Here is about where they enforce the speed laws, isn"t it?"
"We have to take chances," replied the man, "if we expect to cover the ground."
"Mercy!" exclaimed Cora. "Please do not take any chances with speed laws. I have a perfect horror of that sort of thing."
"What"s she doing?" asked the doctor.
"Only twenty miles, sir," replied the chauffeur, "and they allow us fifteen."
"Couldn"t we just as well conform to the regulation speed?" asked Cora anxiously. It was rather unusual for her to show such timidity.
"Leave it to Tom," replied the young doctor. "Chauffeurs are like house-maids--they must not be interfered with."
Up to this time Cora had really not noticed the speed. Her conversation with Duncan had been altogether engrossing. But now she began to appreciate the situation, and this precluded all other considerations, even the thoughts of Chelton.