“Weren’t we the thoughtful bunch to send him after you?”
“Hey, Linda! we’re going to have the same old room, Mrs. Cupp says.”
The automobile came to a stop. The boy driver drawled:
“Some mistake, girls. I didn’t see Linda Riggs at all. But here’s a couple of new ones.”
Bess had uttered a horrified gasp; but Nan was almost convulsed with laughter. She could usually appreciate the funny side of any situation; and to her mind this most certainly was funny!
It was plain that Linda Riggs was popular enough with some of her schoolmates to have them welcome her with special éclat. They had engaged this boy with the automobile to meet her at the station.
In place of Linda, arriving in the motor car, Nan and Bess had usurped her place; while even now the old ’bus was rumbling up the driveway with Linda inside.
“Goodness! who can they be?” remarked one of the girls, staring at Nan and Bess.
The former was quite composed as, with her own and Bess Harley’s possessions about her on the lower of the four broad steps leading up to the veranda, she drew out her purse to pay the boy for the trip from the station.
“How much?” she asked him, without observing the surprised group in her rear.