"Mr. Barton thinks Mary is a lovely girl," said Grace to Ned.
"Well, he is certainly right," was the answer. "So does Tom Swift."
"Oh, well, that's different. Mr. Barton is just a very good friend. Of course I know that Tom and Mary are engaged. But a girl must be nice to those who are nice to her."
"Then you'd better start right in on me!" challenged Ned, and the two laughed.
This was more than Mary and Tom were doing just then. They seemed to be talking seriously on the rear seat of the taxi, Ned and Grace occupying the auxiliary folding seats ahead.
However, once the House on Wheels was reached, the air cleared a bit. Both girls went into raptures over the House, though Mary had seen it before, when it was almost completed. They reveled in the appointments and said the kitchen was "just darling," using so many other adjectives to praise the other sections that Tom and Ned felt quite set up over having had a hand in turning out the machine.
The House on Wheels was taken for a spin into the country with the girls as guests, and the party remained out all day, eating "on board," if that be the proper term. In the evening, when the return to Chesterport was made, Tom and Mary seemed to have patched up their little differences. Ned had an inkling as to what was at the bottom of the trouble when he overheard Tom say:
"Well, but you didn't need to dance every number with him, did you?"
"I didn't! I danced with you three times! If I had known you were coming I'd have saved more for you."
"I'm sorry I didn't send you word," murmured Tom.