"Sure you've got everything? Your hair ribbon?"
"Yes, everything."
When Nell and the Atom were ready they went back to Molly's room. Worse chaos than before greeted them. Molly was crawling under the bed.
"I've lost one of my shoes! Oh, I'm so hot! And now I suppose my nose will get red!"
The Atom, wise beyond her years, found the shoe in a hat box, and they sallied forth.
"Thank goodness, we're not needing hats and things," sighed Nell, "or we'd never start at all!"
"Nell," on the next-door doorstep came an agonised whisper from Molly, "I've forgotten my waist belt!"
In the drawing-room Sheila Pat ensconced herself behind a table, and kept a wary eye on Stewart. Presently his mother sent him across to her. He came and stood in front of her; the Atom gazed over his head.
Nell caught her eye and frowned meaningly.
"Sure, thin, haven't you a tongue at all?" Sheila Pat obediently opened the conversation.