Before daylight, on the great day, Mollie's two arms encircled a sleepy
Barbara, and a soft voice whispered in her ear: "It isn't true, is it,
Bab, that you and I, two insignificant little girls, who never could
have conceived of anything so glorious, are off to-day for Newport,
escorted by Ruth's distinguished friend, 'Mr. A. Bubble'?"
Barbara was wide awake in a minute.
"I suppose it's true," she said, "because it was last night, before we
went to bed. Otherwise I would think we had both dreamed it."
The two girls talked in excited whispers. It wouldn't do to waken mother
any earlier than they must, for she was tired with their preparations,
though her daughters had persuaded her to have a little country girl in
to help with the work, now that she was to have so important a person as
Mr. Stuart for "boarder."
But at seven o'clock it was mother who called:
"Get up, girls. It is time for coffee and clothes, if you are to start
off at ten as you promised. It will not do to keep Miss Stuart and the
girls waiting. As for Mr. A. Bubble, I don't believe he can stand still,
even if he tries."
Aunt Sallie having called on Sunday afternoon, had waived ceremony and
stayed to tea in the tiny cottage, so impressed was she with Mrs.
Thurston's quiet charm and gentle manners.
The two girls hurried into their kimonos. Mother had suggested these
garments for this morning, since they were to dress so soon afterwards
in their "going away" clothes.
By the time that Barbara and Mollie had put on their pretty brown and
blue serge suits, with their dust coats over them, they heard strange
noises on the front porch, mingled with giggles and whispers. Barbara
was putting the sixth hat pin into her hat, and tying the motor veil so
tightly under her chin that it choked her, when Mollie peeped out the
front window.
"It's a surprise party, I do believe," she whispered. "There's Harold
Smith, with a big bunch of pink roses. I know they are for you. The
girls have little bundles in their hands. What fun! I didn't know they
had heard of our trip. How fast news _does_ fly around this village."
While Mollie and Barbara were saying their good-byes on their little
veranda there was equal excitement at the big hotel.
Before breakfast Ruth had gone out to the garage with her arm in her
father's.
"I want to see with my own eyes, Dad," she said, "that the machine is
all right. Isn't it well that I have a taste for mechanics, even though
I am a girl? Suppose I hadn't studied all those automobile books with
you until I could say them backwards, and hadn't helped you over all the
accidents--you never would have let me go on this heavenly trip, would
you? I am going to be as careful as can be, just to show you did right
to trust me, also not to give Aunt Sallie a chance to say, 'I told you
so.'"
Ruth had pretty, sunny, red-gold hair and big, gray-blue eyes. Though
she wasn't exactly a beauty, her face was so frank, and her coloring so
fresh and lovely, many people thought her very good-looking.
Mr. Stuart smiled at his daughter's enthusiasm. "She's 'a chip of the
old block,'" he said to himself. "She loves fun and adventure and
'getting there,' like a man. I am not going to stand in her way."
Mr. Stuart was feeling rather nervous about the trip this morning, but
he didn't intend Ruth to know.
To judge by the looks of the automobile, the chauffeur must have been up
all night. The machinery was cleaned and oiled. The extra tires, in
their dark red leather cases, were strapped to the sides of the car. A
great box of extra rugs and wraps, rubber covers for the machine and
mackintoshes in case of rain, was tied on the back. Between the seats
was an open hamper for lunch, with an English tea service in one
compartment, and cups, saucers, a teapot and a hot-water jug and alcohol
lamp, all complete. The luncheon was to be sent down later from the
hotel.
"You are to take your meals at the inns along the way, when you prefer,"
Mr. Stuart had explained, "but I don't mean to have you run the risk of
starving in case you are delayed, or an accident occurs. Be sure to take
your picnic lunch along with you, when you start out each day. What you
don't eat, feed to the small boys along the road, who will insist on
playing guide."
Aunt Sallie was the only one of the hotel party who enjoyed breakfast.
Grace had driven over early, and was breakfasting with Ruth in order to
save delay. Both the girls and Mr. Stuart were too excited to take much
interest in their bacon and eggs, but Aunt Sallie ate with a resigned
expression that seemed to say: "Perhaps this is my last meal on earth."
Yet, secretly, she was almost as delighted as were the girls in the
prospect of the trip.
"Now, Sallie, you are not to go if you don't wish to," Mr. Stuart had
protested. "You must not let Ruth drag you into this trip against your
will."
But all he could persuade his sister to answer was: "If Ruth is going on
such an extraordinary excursion, then, at least, I shall be along to see
that nothing worse happens to her."
Gladys Le Baron came into the dining-room, stopping in front of Ruth's
table. "You dear things," she drawled in her most careful society
manner, "how can you look so fresh so early in the morning? I hope you
appreciate my getting up to see you off." Gladys wore a lingerie frock
more appropriate for a party than for the breakfast room.
But Ruth answered good naturedly. "I do appreciate it, if it is such an
effort for you. Did you know Mr. Townsend is going to ride over to the
Thurston's with us to see us start? He tells me you and he are both to
be in Newport while we are there."
"Yes," Gladys declared with more airs than before. "Mrs. Erwin has asked
me to be one of the house-party she's to have for her ball. She told me
I could bring a friend along, and I have asked Mr. Townsend."
"Wonderful! We won't expect you to associate with us!" laughed Grace.
"Gladys," Ruth asked, "would you like to drive over to Mrs. Thurston's
with us? Father is going, and the carriage will be there to bring him
back."
"I would like to go," murmured Gladys, "if I didn't have on this old
frock. I don't know Mollie and Barbara very well, but I suppose I shall
have to see a great deal of them, now you have taken them up. I wonder
how they will behave at Newport? They have hardly been out of
Kingsbridge before."
Grace and Ruth both looked angry, and Mr. Stuart broke in, quite curtly:
"I am sure we can depend on their behaving becomingly, which is all that
is necessary at Newport or any other place." Ruth's father was a
business acquaintance of Gladys's father, and had known her mother when
the latter was a girl, but the airs of Mrs. Le Baron and her society
daughter were too much for his western common sense. Only Aunt Sallie
was impressed by their imposing manner.
Ruth was very popular at the big summer hotel, and a number of the
guests had assembled to see her off. But Ruth let her father run the car
and sat quietly by his side. "You'll turn over the command to me,
captain, won't you, when the trip really commences?" and she squeezed
his arm with a little movement of affection.
"Yes, lieutenant," Mr. Stuart said quietly.
"Oh, Miss Ruth," called Mr. Townsend from the back seat, "do show all
these people how you can handle your car!" But she only shook her head.
"Goodness me, what are all those people doing on Mrs. Thurston's porch?"
Ruth asked, in alarm. "I hope nothing has happened." But, as the car
neared the quiet little house, which stood midway between the hotel and
the New York high road, she saw the party of young people gathered on
the front lawn.
"It's only their friends, come to say good-bye to them," Harry
volunteered. In answer to "What a bore!" from Gladys, he continued: "I
don't know why you should think it a bore. Miss Stuart enjoys her
friends's popularity." Mr. Townsend had been trying, for several weeks,
to make himself equally agreeable to Ruth and Gladys. They were both
very wealthy, and it seemed wise to him to associate with rich people.
But as Ruth was not easily impressed with what she called "just
foolishness," he had become very intimate with Gladys Le Baron.
When Mr. Stuart tooted the horn to announce their approach to the
cottage a chorus of tin horns answered him from Mrs. Thurston's front
garden. As the car drew up to the gate, the boys and girls began to
sing, "See the Conquering Hero Comes," while Barbara ran down to the car
and Mollie urged her friends to be quieter. "I just don't know what Miss
Stuart and Mr. Stuart will think of us!" she blushingly remonstrated.
But Aunt Sallie and Mr. Stuart were in for all the fun going this
morning. Barbara was invited to call her seven friends who had come to
give the girls a send-off, down to meet the occupants of the car. Even
Gladys, as she was forced to get out of the automobile to let the other
travelers in, was condescending enough to permit Harold Smith to assist
her. Harold was an old friend of Barbara's, and one of the cleverest
boys in the village.
Mr. Stuart went into the house for the suit cases and satchels, which
were all the girls were to take with them, as they were to manage with
as few clothes as possible. It had been arranged that extra luggage was
to be expressed to them along the way.
Barbara had caught Mollie storing away a sample package of cold cream
among her most treasured possessions.
"I am sure I don't see why you should laugh so," Mollie urged quite
seriously. "It reads on the label 'especially adapted for automobile
travelers to remove dust and tan from the face after the drive.' Aren't
we going to be automobile travelers?"
"Sure and we a'ire," said Bab, imitating the old Irish washerwoman, "and
it shall put grease on its nose if it likes."
"Come, daughter," said Mr. Stuart finally, as Ruth was trying to explain
to a group of admiring boys the first principles of running an
automobile. She talked as familiarly of an emergency brake and a
steering wheel, of horse power and speed-transmission, as most girls
talk of frills and furbelows.
"It's ten-thirty," Mr. Stuart continued, "and, if this party is to be a
strictly on time affair, you must be off! You couldn't have a more
wonderful day."
It was late in the month of June. The summer clouds were sailing
overhead, great bubbles of white foam thrown up into the blue depth of
the sky. The sun shone brightly and the whole atmosphere was perfumed
with the bloom of the honeysuckle, that hung in yellow clusters from
Mrs. Thurston's porch.
Barbara and Mollie flung their arms around their mother until she was
completely enveloped in their embrace. Ruth kissed her father, and put
her hand to her trim leather cap with a military salute. "It's all
right, captain," she said; "I'll bring my crew and good ship 'Bubble'
safely into port."
Aunt Sallie was anxious to be off. She could see that Mrs. Thurston was
on the verge of tears at the thought of parting with her daughters.
Still the young people were laughing and talking, and storing their
little gifts under the seats in the car, as though they had all day
before them.
"Hurry, child," Aunt Sallie urged, reaching out a hand to Mollie. "Jump
up on the back seat with Grace and me. We will let Mistress Barbara sit
with Ruth for the first of the journey." Aunt Sallie was very imposing
in a violet silk traveling coat, with a veil and hat of the same shade;
indeed, Miss Sallie had a fancy for a "touch of lavender" in everything
she wore. With her snow-white hair, and commanding appearance, she would
add prestige to the party, Mollie thought, no matter how dusty and
wind-blown the rest of them might appear.
The girls hopped gayly in. Toot, toot, toot! the horn blew three times.
Chug-chug-chug! and the great machine began to breathe with deep,
muffled roars. Mr. Stuart gave the starting crank a strong turn, and the
car slid gracefully along the road, red, blue, pink and violet motor
veils floating behind in the breeze.
"Here's good luck to you!" shouted Harold Smith, and roses and flowers
of every kind were flung after them. Mollie and Grace picked up those
that fell into their laps, and turned to wave their hands and throw
kisses for good-bye.
"They look like a rainbow," said Mr. Stuart, turning to Mrs. Thurston,
who was no longer trying to hide her tears. Then he smiled at her
gently. She was such a tiny, girlish-looking little woman, it was hard
to think of her as the mother of two nearly grown-up daughters. "I
expect," he continued, "that that rainbow holds most of our promise of
sunshine."
They were still watching the car!
Down to the gate, at the furthest end of the road, a baby boy, chubby
and fat, had crawled on two round, turned-in legs. There was something
unusual going on down the street. He could hear strange noises, but,
though he stuck his small nose through the fence, he was still unable to
see. Just as Ruth's car was almost in front of the house, open flew the
stubborn old gate, and the child flung himself out in the middle of the
road, just in front of the wonderful red thing he could see flying
toward him. The baby was too young to understand the danger.
From the watchers at Mrs. Thurston's came a cry of horror. A thrill of
terror passed through the occupants of the car. Ruth's face turned
white. Like a flash, she slowed a little, turned her steering wheel and
with a wide sweep drove her motor to the far side of the road, then
straight on out of the path of the wondering baby.
Mr. Stuart's, "Bravo, daughter!" was lost in his throat. But the little
group of waiting friends gave three cheers for the girl chauffeur, which
Ruth heard even at such a distance. Truly "The Automobile Girls" were
fairly started on their adventures.