“But we’re helpless, you know, Rosa,” Nancy hurried to say. “We only got permission to go out without Margot, on condition that we would be very good and do everything that Dell and Gar wanted us to do.”
“As if I intend to follow that silly stuff,” flung back Rosa, defiantly.
“Oh, all right,” drawled Gar elaborately, as if he were being very much offended. “Don’t worry about us. We can find plenty to do without—”
“Peace! Peace!” chanted Paul, as if fearful that the fun might result otherwise. “We might want an umpire or even a referee, but we don’t want a policeman.”
“Well, how about it?” asked Gar, turning so suddenly to another trend of thought that Nancy didn’t even guess what he meant. “Do we go to the dance to-night or don’t we?”
“I can’t go,” declared Rosa, promptly.
“Oh, you know you can if you want to, Rose,” the boy urged, “and it’s going to be a big time.”
“But we really don’t take part in the dance, do we?” queried Nancy, just a little timidly, for she was not yet old enough to go to dances.
“Don’t worry, lamb,” said Rosa, facetiously, “even the very babes dance at summer hotels early in the evening. Later, of course, the grown-ups own the floor. What we want to see is the masquerade, the follies, and all the stunts they get up. They’re fun!” she admitted, thus agreeing with Gar, who wanted to go to an affair that evening.
They were back to the porch of the big house now, and although Rosa pressed the boys to sit on the bench awhile, they politely declined, declaring they would presently have to go back to town for the delayed car.