"Fine!" answered Ned, who had thoroughly enjoyed himself.
"Are you all ready?" asked Tom, trying to smile but not making a great success of it. He seemed anxious to avoid answering the question. But Mary was not to be put off.
"I asked if you had a good time last night, Tom Swift," and Mary's voice had a new quality in it. "Aren't you going to answer me?"
"Oh, I beg your pardon. Of course! It was a lovely affair. And I must say you danced very well, Mary—you and Mr. Barton."
There was something in Tom's tone that made Mary look sharply at him, but she said nothing more then.
"Well, are you all ready for the thrill of your lives?" asked Ned, to cover the little moment of embarrassment that followed the interchange between Mary and Tom.
"Does the machine go very fast?" asked Grace.
"Not at all," Tom made haste to say. "It isn't a racer, by any means. It's just a comfortable way of traveling, that's all. There won't be any particular thrill."
"I'm eager to see it since its completion," said Mary, and Ned noticed that her manner toward Tom had changed a bit.
However, once they were started, the party was gay enough and Ned thought perhaps his chum's natural jealousy would wear off. He learned, by judicious questions put to Grace Winthrop, that Floyd Barton was a rich young man of the neighborhood who had been paying Mary much attention since her arrival in Chesterport.