“I suppose he went back to his Miss Pinch,” said Jack who quite resented the disaffection of the friend she had been the first to discover, and who had always been particularly chatty with her.
“I think he might have had the grace to bring Mr. Pinch, or whatever his name is, to call,” said Jo.
“Oh, what in the world should he do that for? Very likely Mr. Romaine thinks we are only a lot of children,” Mary Lee remarked. “He is no chicken, you know; he must be at least twenty-five,” which to sixteen seemed a veritable old bachelor.
“Oh, well, nobody wants him,” spoke up Ran.
“Here, too,” Hartley signified his endorsement of this speech. “I can’t see why you girls should want an old dandy like that dancing around.”
“But Dr. Paul is older,” Jo rejoined.
“But he isn’t a dude; besides he is different anyway,” Ran averred. “Let’s drop the old fossil and talk about something more interesting. Who’s for a horseback ride?”
“A horseback ride? For pity’s sake, where can you get horses?” asked Mary Lee.
“Hartley has discovered two which he thinks are possible and he is going to take Daniella. He says she can ride like a breeze. Nan, if I can get the horses, will you go? Ashby and I are going to see what we can get. What about the rest of you?”
Jo didn’t ride, Effie only indifferently, so Mary Lee was the only available companion for Ashby. She, as well as Nan, could ride “like a breeze” as Ran expressed it.