“Thanks, Dick; I’m recovered,” laughed Shirley, waving away the magazine. “Besides I have this little fan in my ‘under-arm’ bag. It is rather hot today. We are not near enough to the electric fan to get any good of it.”
“We have a fine location, Shirley, in the very center of the car. Your uncle Dick saw to that! I made the reservations, but I can’t vouch for all that are ahead of us. We go from one line to another, you know.”
Shirley did not know. With a bland indifference to detail, for all that would be looked after by somebody, she was ready for all adventure and surprises. “All right,” she said. “I’m perfectly content to let my ‘uncle Dick,’ with some little help from his parents, no doubt, look after all these things, without bothering about any of them myself. But I may as well say at the start that I am perfectly happy, grateful to you all, and every other nice thing that I ought to be! Why, I can hardly believe it, Dick, honestly!”
“It’s a big chance for me, too, Shirley, and remember that you are going to keep the account of what we see for me, too.”
“Indeed I will, always provided that you keep the bandits away.”
“Did I forget to promise Cousin Anne? But she was just joking, the way she does. Say, Shirley, I’m going to see who’s on this train. I was too busy with family affairs to see if anybody got on that I knew, and the taxi made it anyway.”
“Who knows? Somebody may be going as far as Chicago at least.”
Shirley was beginning to look through her pretty new pocketbook that held so much and was so complete inside and out. She was rather glad to be alone for a little. Dick had settled them all comfortably, doing the little things that a well brought up young man can do.
Now with the male enjoyment of freedom he would stroll through the cars at his own sweet will and Shirley dismissed her cousin’s doings, for her own happy thoughts. Father and Mother were off and on the way to great things. Dear Auntie, to whom she owed this trip, would really not be lonesome, for she, too, had pleasant plans for the summer. It was just wonderful how it had all come about.
Professors in colleges have to plan for trips like this one, for great sums of money do not grow on bushes in universities. Dr. Harcourt’s resources would be strained to finance the European trip, to say nothing of Shirley’s expenses. But Aunt Anne had been heart and soul with the matter from the start. It would be of professional importance for Dr. Harcourt to take the trip, join the expedition in which the university was interested, and get material for the book on which he was working. At once Miss Dudley told them that she would undertake the care or plans for Shirley and it was by her advice that the decisions were made. The Lyttons were going on this long western trip and would be only too glad to have Shirley with them. Arrangements were made almost a year ahead of the time for Shirley’s entrance at the girls’ school.