Laughing, Marjorie went. As she left the college gates behind her she was thrilled with the joy of being alive on such a day. The clear skies, brilliant sunshine and pleasant tang in the air inspired joy of living. Once on the highway, several girls driving their cars called out to her, asking her to ride. To each invitation she smilingly said “No.” In the first place she could not very well ask a student she might ride with to drop her at Hamilton Arms. In the second place she infinitely preferred to walk.
“It is such a fine day I thought you might like to take a walk with me to see my head gardener,” Miss Hamilton proposed shortly after Marjorie’s arrival. “He fell on the ice not long ago and broke his arm. I am going to take him a basket of fruit and dainties. I am not fond of making calls, but I always try to look after my people when they have sickness or are in distress.”
“I’d love to go with you,” Marjorie heartily assured. “I’ll carry the basket in memory of one other day when I carried a basket for you.”
“A very fortunate day it was for me.” Miss Susanna smiled brightly upon the pretty senior. Her affection for Marjorie was the brightest spot in her secluded life.
“We can’t avoid taking the highway for some distance,” deplored the old lady as they walked down the drive toward the entrance gates. “My gardener lives not far from it, but almost half a mile from here. There is a gardener’s house on the estate, but he owns his home and prefers to live there. This is just the kind of day for your Hamilton girls to be filling the highway with their automobiles. It is taking one’s life into one’s hands to venture along the road when they and their cars are out in numbers.”
There was distinct aggressiveness in the speech. Miss Hamilton cherished a rooted antipathy for automobiles. She still kept in the Arms stable a pair of thoroughbred coach horses for her own use. Nothing could tempt her to ride in a motor car.
From Hamilton Arms to the adjoining estate the pike was broad, with wide level footpaths on each side. They could travel this portion of it without fear of accident from passing automobiles. A gradual curve in the road at the beginning of the next estate and it narrowed, continuing for two hundred yards or more between two slight elevations. It was the only “tricky” stretch of the highway, as Leila had often remarked when driving over it.
The top of these elevations formed footpaths only wide enough to permit the passing of persons, single file. The February thaw had left them too muddy to be used by pedestrians. It was a case of either take to the pike itself or walk in the mud.
“A nice state of affairs!” Miss Susanna exclaimed, her eyes snapping. “This is the way those good-for-nothing Cardens left their part of the highway. These banks should be leveled even with the roadbed. Then they would be fit to walk on. Catch the Cardens spending any money for the good of the public! Compare the appearance of their estate with that of Hamilton Arms! Quite a difference, isn’t there?”
“I should say so.” Interested in what Miss Susanna was saying, Marjorie had relaxed for a moment her vigilant watch on the road. She now gazed critically at the wide, but not specially ornamental grounds surrounding the colonial residence which housed the hated Cardens when at home. She saw clearly the inferiority of this estate as compared to the dignity of ever-beautiful Hamilton Arms.