Dodo looked like a thunder-cloud and pulled at her mother’s arm, but Mr. Alexander spoke out bluntly.
“I ain’t invited to nobody’s house, so I’m going on to London to get that car you told me about. Dodo can come with me.”
His spouse instantly silenced him with a glowering look, and Angela hoped to smooth matters out by what she now said.
“Mother and father will be delighted to have all of you come, and I’m sure they will feel dreadfully, if anyone is left out. We never stand on ceremony, you know, and this is an occasion where you all must come without formality.”
“We’re delighted, I assure you, Miss Osgood, and I will accept for my family and myself. The only question now, is, how shall we manage about the cars. If only my seven-passenger car was here instead of in London!” exclaimed Mrs. Alexander, eagerly.
“Why, the ladies will use this car, of course,” said Mr. Fabian, “while we men go in the baggage-car. You may be uncomfortably crowded, but I see no other way.”
So Mrs. Fabian, Mrs. Ashby and Mrs. Alexander sat in the back seat while Polly, Eleanor, Ruth and Dodo had to crowd upon the folding seats in the middle of the car. Nancy sat in front and Angela drove the car. The groom with the baggage and the three men followed directly after in his car.
Mrs. Alexander certainly was a general when she wanted to win a battle of wits, but it was a pity she had no better ambitions than the mere forcing a way into society and marrying her daughter to a title.
As they started for London, she leaned back in the seat and said: “If only the company hadn’t mistaken the directions about my car. It is such a great roomy affair, that everyone could have traveled in it with the utmost comfort.”
“But it wouldn’t have been here at all, for us to travel in, if they had sent it as you directed—to Havre, instead of London,” said Mrs. Ashby.