“Why, Janice,” said the principal, smiling, “I have found you so far to be a most sensible and trustworthy girl. If you told me you had business in the moon I should be inclined to countenance your absence while you attended to it. Of course you may go, my dear,” and she kissed the flushed girl warmly.
Janice’s car was parked on the school grounds. She ran out to it, took the blanket off the radiator, tried the starter and the gas, found that everything seemed all right, and prepared to depart. As she wheeled out of the seminary grounds the clock in the tower struck the half hour after one.
The roads were still in good condition. The sky had threatened a storm for several days; but it was still in the clouds and the rags of mist hanging from the higher peaks of the Green Mountains. The car hummed along over the Upper Road, and Janice met few other vehicles. The people at the farmhouses she passed stared at her, as they always did. She took the direct route to the Elder’s home, for there was haste. Had the constable been timing her to-day he might have made out a very good case of speeding against her, for the trust company closed its doors at half past three o’clock!
“I wish I had told him last night—or had gone back at once this noon,” thought the anxious girl. “Suppose something happens? Suppose the car breaks down?”
But she watched everything very carefully. Although she coaxed the car along at a high rate of speed, she took no chances. She did not travel at near the speed she had on the day she had taken the sick Trimmins baby to Dr. Poole’s office.
The Elder’s white-painted house and his big barns finally came into view. Janice drove right into the open gate and to the side door. The roaring of the exhaust before she shut off the engine brought the old man himself to the door—in his dressing-gown and slippers and with a book in his hand.
The moment he identified Janice he scowled, demanding:
“What do you mean, girl—coming in here with that thing? You are bold indeed to drive that chariot of Satan into my yard.”
“Wait, Mr. Concannon! do wait!” begged Janice, hastily getting out from behind the wheel. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
“To tell me?” he asked, amazed.