Frank was chagrined and very, very angry. He blamed the Slaters more than he did his sister. He came to Janice with the trouble even before he sought out Annette.
“Can we get away? Could she be squeezed into that pung of yours? The seats are quite wide——”
“Of course, Mr. Bowman,” Janice murmured. “I will get Auntie and Marty. We will be glad to go home at once. Don’t tell your sister anything about what has been said, Mr. Bowman. Just make up some reason for your wanting her to go home with you to-night.”
“By George! you’re a good one, Janice Day,” declared the civil engineer. “And if Annette had any sense at all she’d be grateful to you the longest day she lives. But, of course, she won’t. I don’t know what possesses her—has possessed her, in fact, since she came out of that fancy school she attended. I wish to goodness,” concluded the worried young man, “that she’d sow her wild oats and get over it. No boy could ever be as much trouble and worriment as she is. I vow, if she were a few years younger I’d—I’d spank her!”
CHAPTER XXI
AFTER THE DANCE
That form of chastisement might have had a salutary effect upon Annette Bowman. Certainly, as it was, she behaved no better on the way to Polktown than she had at Judge Slater’s dance.
In the first place, she objected audibly to being crowded in between Mrs. Day and Janice on the back seat on the sleigh. “It does seem to me, Frank, that you might have obtained transportation for us in some other vehicle,” she said aloud. “And why you should need me in Polktown, just because you might be called away to-morrow, I fail to see. I think you might have some feeling for me, Frank. You are just as selfish as you can be.”
“Now, young lady, don’t you be a-fussin’ and a-fumin’,” said Aunt ’Mira comfortably. “The closer we air packed in here, the warmer we will be goin’ home. Jest you snuggle right down and keep out o’ the wind. Wind’s on my side, anyway; and I be sech an elephant that both o’ you gals kin be sheltered.”
Aunt ’Mira began to chuckle. “I don’t keer, Janice, I did dance two of them funny dances. Miz’ Cora Pease an’ I done ’em together, and I bet we looked like two circus elephants a-waltzin’. But ’twas fun—I ain’t done the like at a public dance since Jason and I was courtin’.
“Goodness me! That was a long spell ago, warn’t it? But we ain’t got no business to be old before our time. I gotter wake Jason up—I sartainly have!”