Just to make the ice-cream taste better, Aunt Winnie again turned partly. Dorothy and Tavia stood still, unable to decide whether it was wise to retreat or advance, Ned solved it for them by rising and waiting for the girls. Aunt Winnie, of course, turned all the way around and discovered the two girls hugging each other, in silent mirth.
“Tavia would have cream,” explained Dorothy.
“But it would have tasted so much better had we eaten it without being found out,” said Tavia, woefully.
“Just look at this,” said Ned, “and maybe the flavor of the cream will be good enough,” and he handed the girls a check marked in neat, small print, which the porter had handed him: “Two plates of ice-cream, at 75 cents each, $1.50.”
“How outrageous!” cried Dorothy.
“We’ll return it immediately,” said Tavia, indignantly.
“I paid it,” explained Ned, drily. “You wanted something outside of meal hours, and you might have expected to have the price raised.”
“At that cost each spoonful will taste abominable,” moaned Tavia.
Said Dorothy sagely: “It won’t taste at all if we don’t eat it instantly. It’s all but melted now.”
“Yes, pray eat it,” said the gruff voice of a man behind closed curtains, “so the rest of us can get to sleep.”