“Gee whiz! It’s late to spring your command.”
“Not five seconds since I received mine. They’ve been motoring all the evening.”
“And I’m—not—dressed to meet—”
“Billy To-morrow! When did you begin to cogitate about apparel?”
“It’s different—”
“No more. The Queen commands. Come over right away, and father will set us down,—the machine is at the door. I won’t be a minute.”
Bess’s home was only a block away, and her “minute” only five, yet in that short time Dr. Carter had a call in another direction, and the two young people had to take a trolley car. This was an opportunity Bess had desired, and she improved it at once.
“Billy, I want you to tell me why you didn’t ask May Nell to go with you to the picnic instead of Erminie.”
“May Nell isn’t a pupil of Fifth Avenue High.”
“That makes no difference. A lot of the Juniors brought friends. For that matter what was Mumps doing there? If I had known you wouldn’t ask her, I should have taken her.”