He wanted her to be more like Nan. "But, then," the boy thought, "there's only one Nan Sherwood in the world. Guess I can't expect Grace to run a very close second to her."
However, when the girls did appear Grace was chattering just as excitedly as Bess Harley herself; and she led Inez by the hand.
"Yes, she shall! She'll go right home with me now—sha'n't she, Walter?" Grace cried. "You get a taxi, and we'll all pile in—did you ever ride in a taxi, Inez?"
"Nope. But I caught on behind a jitney once," confessed the little girl, "and a cop bawled me out for it."
"We're going to take her home, and dress her up nice," Bess explained to
Walter, "and give her the time of her life."
Inez seemed a bit dazed. In her own vernacular she would probably have said—had she found her voice—that "things was comin' too fast for her." She scarcely knew what these girls intended to do with her; but she had a good deal of confidence in Nan Sherwood, and she looked back at her frequently.
It was to Nan, too, that Walter looked for directions as to their further movements, as well as for exact information as to what had gone on up stairs in Jennie Albert's room.
"She's an awfully plucky girl," Nan said. "No; she's not very ill now," the doctor said, "but she does have a dreadful cough. However, the doctor has given her medicine.
"It's odd," Nan added thoughtfully, "but she got this cold down at Tillbury. The company she was out with were taking pictures near there. There's a big old mansion called the Coscommon House that hasn't been occupied for years. It's often filmed by movie people; but never in the winter before, that I know of."
"But, Nan!" exclaimed Walter. "What did we come over here for, anyway?
How about those runaway girls?"