"We may have a long wait," said Rosalie, "so we may as well make ourselves comfortable. What an unlucky thing to happen. I am afraid, Miss Austin, that you will have an uncomfortable memory of your first visit to Hilltop."
"Oh, I don't mind in the least," said Marian. "It is quite an adventure, and I do love anything out of the common, don't you? So long as we keep warm, it is all right. We're not hungry after the cakes and tea, so we can stand this for hours yet."
"I'd like it better if it were not dark," said Janet. "Hark, I hear wheels."
"And I see a light," said Marian.
"It can't be the carriage so soon," declared Rosalie.
"It isn't the carriage, but it is a carriage," said Janet peering out of the window, "and it is coming the other way. There, it has stopped."
Presently a big man, in a heavy overcoat powdered with snow, came stamping in. He was followed by a little old woman bundled up in a blanket shawl. "How soon does this car start?" asked the man of the conductor, who likewise had taken a seat inside.
"Ask me something easy," was the answer. "We've got to wait for the wrecking car. Sometimes it's an hour; sometimes it's two. Ye never can tell."
"Humph! We'll have to make the best of it, Lyddy," said the big man turning to his wife. "Joe's in a hurry to get back, and we'll jest have to wait to get home." He let himself down on the seat with a great grunt, and the little woman slipped into a place beside him.
The girls talked in undertones while the big man questioned the conductor and made remarks not flattering to the motor man.