"I suppose so," agreed Mollie. "I could just see little Paul then," she went on. "If I had hit that child——"
She did not finish, but they all knew what she meant.
Deepdale was reached without further incident, and the girls agreed that Mollie had piloted her car wonderfully well for a beginner.
"Of course I've got lots to learn," she said to her chums, "but that will come gradually, the demonstrator said. One learns, after a while, to steer instinctively, and to do everything almost automatically—like slowing down, applying the brakes and so on. Now you girls must come over to-night, and we'll——"
"Talk!" interrupted Amy. "We've got lots to talk about."
"We always have," said Grace, looking in vain for a chocolate. The car had stopped in front of her house, and Mollie had said she would leave the other girls at their residences.
"Oh, don't bother," Betty had protested. "You must be tired, and it's only a step."
"No, we must do this in style!" decided Mollie. "What is the use of a motor car if one can't bring one's friends home in the proper mode?" And she had her way.
The auto was to be kept in a public garage until Mrs. Billette could have one built on her own premises, and, leaving her machine with the man in charge, Mollie walked home.
That night her three chums called, and the talk was almost entirely devoted to the strange girl and her queer disappearance.