“Good,” said Mr. Black. “Would either of those girls think of that?”
“Mabel wouldn’t,” replied Jean, “but Henrietta might. She has traveled a lot you know. She’s been in London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Washington, Boston and even in Chicago—but not for very long. Still, she knows a lot more about cities than we do. She has stayed in hotels—perhaps she’ll go to one.”
“But—had she any money? Had Mabel?”
“Mabel’s mother didn’t give her very much,” said Jean. “She always loses it. What she had she packed in her suitcase.”
“And I have Henrietta’s,” mourned Mr. Black. “Poor girls! They are frightened half to death and hungry too. They had an early breakfast, poor things. I should have kept an eye on them every moment.”
“Just one eye wouldn’t have been enough for Henrietta,” remarked Bettie. “She darts about like a humming bird. There’s one thing certain. They’re not in this block.”
“We’ll walk back and forth for twenty minutes longer,” said Mr. Black. “Then we’ll get something to eat. After that we’ll go to the station.”
Owing to very slow service, it was almost two o’clock before they finished their meal. There was another delay when they tried to find a taxicab. After that they were held up twice by congested traffic and the anxious girls began to fear that they might be late for the three o’clock train; but they were not.
Mr. Black was quite pale and haggard from anxiety when at last they reached the station. He gave an audible sigh of relief when two girls seated just inside the waiting room door, hopped up and grabbed his coat tails to halt his rapid stride through the station.
“Oh, Mr. Black,” squealed Mabel. “We’re here. We walked all the way and we asked a policeman on every corner to make sure we were getting to the right place. I used to think I ought to run if I saw a policeman but I guess they’re pretty useful if you’re good—only I wasn’t. It was all my fault. I went into a store to buy candy.”