“Perhaps not. Now do stop fretting, Penny. Your father will be here before long.”
“He’d better be,” Penny said darkly.
Sitting down on the stone step by the door, she scuffed the toe of her tennis shoe back and forth in the gravel. Mrs. Weems who had cared for the girl ever since the death of Mrs. Parker, gazed at her sternly.
“Now do stop grieving!” she chided. “That’s no way to act just because you’re impatient and disappointed.”
“But I’ve been disappointed three times now,” Penny complained. “We planned on starting early and having a picnic lunch on the road. Dad promised faithfully—”
A car drove up to the curb at the front of the house. Penny sprang hopefully to her feet. However, it was not her father who had arrived. Instead, her chum, Louise Sidell, alighted and came running across the yard.
“Oh, I’m glad I’m not too late to say goodbye to you, Penny!” she cried. “How soon are you starting?”
“I’d like to know the answer to that one myself. Dad hasn’t put in an appearance. He was due here at three o’clock.”
“Why, I saw him about twenty minutes ago,” Louise replied, turning to inspect the over-loaded sedan. “My, how did you accumulate so much luggage?”
Penny ignored the question to ask one of her own. “Where did you see Dad, Lou?”