“Laura and Norma? Met them just as we turned out of Linden Avenue,” the reply floated back to Robin’s gratified ears.
When within a short distance of the bus stand she had the good luck to encounter Laura and Norma. They had enthusiastically hailed the detail as a fine opportunity to prove their mettle as Travelers. They had also pressed Adeline Raymond, another of the new Travelers, into service with her car. Twenty-six passengers made up the jubilant aggregation of the three cars which the trio of Travelers had brought to the emergency.
Robin shouted and waved her encouragement of the overflowing carloads of girls as the machines shot past her own. She did not attempt to stop the three willing drivers who had responded so promptly to the call. She had not more than reached the drug store and sprung from her car when Lillian drove up, laughingly sounding her own praises as a high-speed motorist.
“We have met the obstacle and surmounted it,” Phil emphasized her joyful boast with a flourish of the arm. She and Barbara had rushed out of the drug store at sight of the returned pair of P. G.’s. “Only sixteen more girls to go to the inn. Speed up, and you can get them there by a little after one. Then you can come back for us. I’ve ’phoned Silverton Hall that we may be late for dinner. It will be all right.”
“You’re a collection of jewels, all of you.” Robin made an affectionately inclusive gesture. “What about Thanksgiving dinner at your house, Lillian?” she turned to her classmate.
“Not until four o’clock. I’ve barrels of time to squander,” Lillian declared extravagantly.
“Come on, friends and fellow-citizens!” Robin was now beckoning briskly to the sixteen girls of the dormitory group who had followed Phil and Barbara outside the store. “Please accept my profound apologies for having to pack you in, eight to a car. It will have to be done.”
“Try to regard the experience from the stoical standpoint of a sardine,” Phil advised comfortingly, but in a comfortless tone.
Her advice was received with a buzz of retaliating sallies from the giggling aspirants for sardine experience. Neither dark weather nor mishaps can long suppress the exuberant spirit of youth. It bubbles up like a magic spring at the first intimation of trouble ended and good fortune nigh. What might have been a most vexatious disappointment had been averted in the nick of time. In consequence, Baretti’s dinner guests were in high feather at the triumph of Robin, Phil and Barbara over calamitous circumstances.
Robin’s heart responded to the rollicking happy disturbance the double octette of girls were making as they piled themselves into the two waiting cars. She did not know what the rest of the day might bring forth but she was greatly inspirited by Signor Baretti’s promise to help.