"I must go right straight away," she said, smiling at her hostess. "My joke worked a little too well, and unless I appear they're going to send out a search party after me! I told Adele her little car was here. How did it get here, Mr. Peyton?"
"I went after it and brought it here; instead of taking it to Mrs.
Hammersmith's or whatever her name was!"
"You mean Mrs. Hemingway," said Patty, laughing, "my former mistress, who left me in her car to go in search of help."
"Yes," said Peyton. "Wasn't it lucky I came along? You little thought
Farnsworth sent me, did you?"
"Indeed I didn't!" and Patty smiled at him, "and will you take me home in that little car? for I promised Adele I'd go at once."
"Of course I will," said Bob Peyton, "if you must go."
So Patty was made ready for her drive and Mrs. Brewster insisted she should wear the warm coat as the evening had grown chilly.
The whole crowd went out on the steps to see Patty off, and Mr.
Brewster tucked her in, while Bob Peyton cranked the car.
"All aboard," said Peyton, straightening himself up, at last; and then, somehow,—and Patty never knew how it happened,—somebody jumped into the seat beside her, somebody grasped the steering-wheel, and the little car flew down the road and out at the gate, and even before Patty looked up to see the face of the man beside her, she KNEW it was not Mr. Peyton!
She looked up, and saw smiling at her the blue eyes of Bill Farnsworth.