“I haven’t anything to report,” Helen said to her mother after she had made these various calls, “but I had better be getting out our handbags and trying to find Roger, I suppose.”
Mrs. Morton was already packing her valise with her own and Dicky’s requirements and she nodded an assent to Helen’s suggestion.
It was not many minutes before the telephone bell began ringing. The first summons was from Margaret Hancock who said that her mother and father were delighted with the opportunity to have her and James go to Philadelphia in Mrs. Morton’s care.
“It will be a real Club expedition,” she said gleefully, “and I’m just as sure as if I saw it with my own eyes, that you’re packing a ‘History of Philadelphia’ in your hand-bag.”
Helen laughed because she was well accustomed to being joked about her love of history.
“I notice all of you are willing enough to listen when I tell about places,” she said, “and this time you’ll have to take it from me because Grandfather won’t be there to tell you.”
The next ring meant that the Ethels had returned to Mrs. Emerson’s.
“What do you want of us?” Ethel Blue asked in a tone that sounded as if she were not particularly pleased at being called back.
“How would you like to go to Philadelphia?” Helen answered triumphantly.
“Do you really mean it?” asked Ethel, who was not quite sure that her ears were hearing correctly.