“Where do you expect us to sit?” added Mrs. Fabian.
“On the running-board, to be sure,” retorted her husband.
“Yes, because this fine blue takes precedence over modern objects, even though they be mortals,” chuckled Mr. Ashby.
“You-all just ought to see the pink set Mr. Ashby got!” exclaimed Dodo, intensely interested in this quest of the antique.
Mrs. Alexander noted the bright eyes and flushed face, and determined to keep Dodo away from such dangerous interests.
“And the old table and bureau that Nolla and I got for a song!” cried Polly, also highly pleased with the purchases.
“Best of all, that good woman is so happy to know she is able to get the ‘wool carpet’ she has wanted for years, that her blessings will travel with us for many a year to come,” added Mr. Fabian, turning to wave his hand at the farmer’s wife as she stood in the doorway waving her apron at the tourists.
After the dishes were safely stowed away, Angela was induced to give her place, in the first car, to Mr. Fabian, so that he could talk to the other girls about the relative values of china.
Angela took no interest in these matters, so she willingly climbed in with the elders in the second car; and Mr. Fabian began a dissertation on blue, pink and brown Staffordshire; gold, silver, and bronze, or copper lustre-ware; Wedgwood, Derby, and Worcester ware, and salt-glaze—which was finest of all when it was genuine antique.
Jimmy had grown very impatient while waiting at the farmhouse and when Angela exchanged seats with Mr. Fabian to permit him to lecture the girls on china, the young man frowned. Finally he became so irritated at what he considered “bally mush,” and not being able to flirt with Ruth who sat in the back seat, he ran the car through all the ruts and over all the rocks he found in the way. This shook up the passengers uncomfortably and interrupted the flow of eloquence from Mr. Fabian. But he and his girls were so absorbed in the subject that they never dreamed the roughness of the road could have been avoided by discontented Jimmy.