"Oh!" said Philip, disappointed. "The other lady said the flowers were her children, and I thought maybe the squirrels were yours ... Goodby!"
When Margaret got to the hotel Mrs. Pennybacker was partly packed. She had foreseen what the next move would be. John Harcourt swore softly.
"She is the most capricious woman I ever saw!" he declared to Bess on the dummy. "Now we're cheated out of that inland trip again!"
"Suppose you stay over and take the inland trip alone," she suggested. "Then you could make sure of it. We haven't any baggage that needs attending to."
"I suppose I am needed only in the capacity of baggage tender," he reproached her.
At Petoskey, after putting them on the train, he stepped outside and delayed his coming back until Bess began to wonder if he had taken her at her word. But he swung himself on as the train started.
"I've just seen Smeltzer out on the platform. Funny how I run across that fellow! He's on his way to Chicago. Says We-que-ton-sing is too slow for him. Had to go to Harbor Springs to get a drink."
Margaret, in her safe corner, with Philip close beside her and the train speeding away from Smeltzer, was thinking, "I wonder if that could all have been imagination. Perhaps he wasn't the man at all!"