THINGS NOT SO IMPORTANT, BUT I'D LIKE TO KNOW
1 Ask about Girlie Dinsmore if you have a chance. Is she as much of a baby as ever?
2 What has become of that horrid Bernice Howe?
3 Does Betty still correspond with the "Pilgrim Father?"
4 Look in the book-case on the north side of the library, and copy the name of that book on Spiders.
5 Find out all you can about the man Allison is going to marry.
There were a dozen similar items.
"Isn't that characteristic of Mary?" exclaimed Lloyd. "She's such a deah little bunch of curiosity. Maybe I oughtn't to call it that. A live, intense interest in everything and everybody would be moah like it. But only twenty-foah hours to do it all in! How can we manage it?"
"Not even that," answered Mr. Sherman, "for part of it must be spent with the stock-holders."
"And you couldn't stay longah?" began Lloyd.
"No, I'm due back at the mines very shortly, and I want to make a flying visit to Joyce in New York before I return, and stop over at Annapolis for a glimpse of Holland. You know I've never been East before, and I want to make the most of it."
"Well," said Lloyd, planning rapidly as they walked on. "We'll crowd just as much as possible into this one evening. There'll be time for a drive befoah dinnah, that will give you a bird's-eye view of the Valley, and a short call at Oaklea and The Beeches. We can ansah Mary's questions as we drive along. Befoah we start I'll telephone in to town and ask Rob to come ovah and take dinnah with you to-night, and we'll ask the Waltons to come ovah—"
She would have paused just there even if they had not reached the house and her sentence been interrupted by Jack's introduction to her mother and Betty, for as she mentioned telephoning it flashed across her what Leland had telephoned her, not to make any engagement for that evening, that he wanted to see her alone.
"But suahly," she thought, "he'll undahstand that that is impossible undah the circumstances—the only night Jack will be heah."