CHAPTER IV
MAKING ACQUAINTANCES
The travelers had scarcely arrived at Los Angeles before Mr. Pinckney called with his daughter, Mrs. Roberts. The latter was a tall, slender woman with lovely dark eyes and hair. She was much more quiet, though more nervous than her father. Both Mrs. Corner and Miss Helen liked her immensely, finding her gentle and sympathetic, yet with a keen sense of humor. She was admired, too, by the four girls, and they all became on friendly terms straightway. Mr. Roberts was a short, keen-eyed, middle-aged man who adored his wife and who made much of the Corner children. In fact, the friendship formed seemed to promise so pleasantly that Mrs. Corner and Miss Helen decided to choose Los Angeles as a home for several months, for it was found that Mrs. Corner's cough yielded to the climate and that she felt stronger here than elsewhere.
The Roberts and Mr. Pinckney were eager to help them select a proper house, so that it seemed that arrangements might be made with little exertion.
"It certainly is a great thing to have friends at hand who know the country thoroughly and who are so ready to give us their assistance in getting settled," said Mrs. Corner with a satisfied air, "and it was certainly a lucky day for us when the girls met Mr. Pinckney."
"Met him?" ejaculated Nan. "You would have thought it was a meeting if you could have seen Jack bump into him."
Every one laughed but Jack who had a far-away, thoughtful look upon her face. "You see, after all," she said presently, "that it was very lucky that I got caught in the elevator that day, for if I hadn't we shouldn't have had time to go for the pralines, and if we hadn't gone we should never have known Mr. St. Nick," a fact which no one could deny.
It was only a day or two later that the girls were sitting on the broad veranda of Mrs. Roberts' pleasant home. Mr. Pinckney had descended upon them that morning early, and nothing would do but he must bear the four away with him. "Jennie has set her heart on their coming to spend the day," he told Mrs. Corner, and so they were permitted to go, though their mother protested that it was an imposition to inflict Mrs. Roberts with the four at once.
"Do, Mary Lee," she gave this last charge, "do look after Jack, and see that she doesn't get into any dreadful mischief."
Mary Lee gave an affirmative nod of the head. "I'll look after her," she promised. As a rule Mary Lee and Jean could be relied upon to return home from an expedition in about as good trim as when they started out, but Jack never did, and even Nan met with more frequent mishaps than her more orderly sisters.