THE HOUSE PARTY
Ralph and Dick were out on the wide velvety lawn which surrounded the
handsome rambling summer home of the Caldwaller-Corys.
The gay awnings, palms and boxes of flowers gave the house a festive
appearance, while the many colored lanterns strung about the garden
suggested that some merriment was planned for the evening.
Mrs. Caldwaller-Cory, who seemed very young to be the mother of a junior
member of an ancient law firm, emerged from the house closely followed by
Roberta Vandergrift.
Bobs, in an attractive summer dress and wide flower-wreathed hat, looked
very different from the girl who, while on the East Side, dressed in a
simple dark tailor-made suit and a neat, narrow-brimmed hat.
"Aren't your guests late, my son?" the hostess inquired. Ralph looked at
his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes.
"They certainly are," he replied, "late by a full hour now, and I am
almost inclined to think that they had a breakdown. They were coming in
Jack Beardsley's tallyho, and he said he would time the drive from New
York so that they would reach us promptly at two-thirty, and now it is
nearing four."
Just at that moment a butler crossed the lawn and, beckoning Ralph to one
side, told him that someone awaited him at the telephone. Excusing
himself, the lad fairly ran indoors. As he had expected, it was the voice
of his friend, Jack Beardsley, that greeted him. "I say, Ralph, are you
alone so that no one will get wise to what I am going to say?"
"Yes," was the reply.
"We don't want to worry her sister needlessly. There really is no cause
for that, but we've been delayed at the Orange Hills Inn because
Gwendolyn Vandergrift, who isn't as strong as she thought, has found
riding in the tallyho too hard. She's got grit, that girl has! Never
complained, but kept up as long as she could that she need not trouble
anyone until she just keeled over and fainted. She's better now, and
Phyllis thought that if you would come over after her with that little
runabout of yours, made comfortable with blankets and pillows, it
wouldn't be as hard for Miss Vandergrift as this old tallyho of mine.
Mrs. Buscom, the innkeeper's wife, will look out for her, and so, if you
are coming, we'll start along, as I want to make the steep grade with
this lumbering vehicle of mine before dark."
"Sure thing, I'll get there all right. I'll take a short cut through the
hills, so you won't pass me, but don't be alarmed. I'll probably get back
here in The Whizz as soon as you do in the tallyho, so I won't say
anything to her sister, Roberta, as yet. So long."
Again Ralph was acting on impulse. His first desire had been to take Bobs
with him, but if he did there would not be room to make the invalid
sister comfortable on the return trip, and, moreover, it wouldn't be fair
to Dick.
His dad wouldn't arrive with the big car until five-thirty, and so The
Whizz would have to do. Sending word out to the group on the lawn that
the tallyho had been delayed but would soon arrive, Ralph donned his
leather coat, cap and goggles and made his way out through a back
entrance and down to the garage. Soon thereafter he was speeding over a
country road which led among the hills and was a short cut of many miles
to the Inn. He broke the speed limit whenever the dirt road was smooth
enough to permit him to do so, but, although he frightened many a flock
of birds from the hedges, no one arose from the wayside tangle to bid him
go more slowly.
When at last he drew up at the Inn, the kind Mrs. Buscom appeared and
smilingly informed him that the young lady was quite rested and that the
tallyho had been gone for half an hour. She was about to lead the way
into the dim, old-fashioned parlor of the Inn when new arrivals delayed
her, and so Ralph went in alone.
The blinds in the old-fashioned parlor of the Inn were drawn, and, having
come in from the dazzling sunshine, Ralph at first could scarcely see,
but a girl, who had been seated in a haircloth rocker, arose and advanced
toward him. She wore a rose-colored linen hat and dress. For a moment the
lad paused and stared as though at an apparition.
"Bobs!" he ejaculated. Then he laughed as he extended his hand. "Miss
Vandergrift, honestly, just for a second I thought that I was seeing a
vision. I had quite forgotten that you and your sister so closely
resemble each other, though, to be sure, you are taller than Bobs; but
pardon me for not introducing myself. I am Ralph Cory, of whom, perhaps,
you have heard."
"And I am Gwendolyn Vandergrift, of whom I am sure that you have heard,
else you would not have come for me," the girl smiled; and, to his
amazement, Ralph found that his heart was pounding like a trip-hammer.
"If you are sure that you are rested, Miss Vandergrift," he said, "we
will start back at once. I've brought soft pillows galore, and a jolly
soft lap robe. I do hope you'll be comfortable."
On the porch of the Inn, Gwen turned and, holding out a frail hand, she
said to the kindly woman: "Thank you, Mrs. Buscom, for having taken such
good care of me. I shall stop again on our way back to town."
The bustling little woman helped arrange the pillows and tucked in the
blanket. Then to Ralph she said as the machinery started: "Do take care
of the pretty dear. It's like a flower she is, and ought to be sheltered
from the rough winds of the world."
"I'll do that little thing, Mrs. Buscom. Good-bye. Wish us luck!"
Ralph drove slowly at first, but Gwen said, "I'm so well packed in
pillows, Mr. Cory, it won't jar me in the least if you go faster." And so
the speed increased. It was late afternoon and the highway was deserted.
"I'd like to overtake the tallyho," Ralph remarked. "If I thought you
wouldn't mind the pace we'd have to hit."
Gwendolyn smiled up trustingly. "I have perfect faith in your driving,"
she said. "I know you will take care of me."
Ralph, looking into the face of the girl at his side, again had the
strange feeling that it was Bobs, only different, and--Oh, what was the
matter with him, anyway? Was it possible that he liked the difference?
Bobs had always been a frank comrade, more like another boy, when he came
to think of it, but this girl, who was equally beautiful, was depending
upon him to take good care of her.
A fifteen-minute spurt brought them to the top of a hill and in the
valley below they saw the tallyho.
Ralph stopped a brief moment on the plateau, leaped out to be sure that
The Whizz was in perfect condition, and then anxiously inquired, "Are you
sure you're game? Loop the loop won't be in it."
Gwen nodded. "I'll like it," she assured him. The color had mounted to
her cheeks and her eyes sparkled. "All right! Hold fast! Here goes!" Then
The Whizz went like a red streak down that hill on which, as Ralph had
observed from the top, there was nothing to impede their progress.
They overtook the tallyho and slowed up that they need not startle the
horses. They had reached the outer boundaries of the Caldwaller-Cory
estate.
"Suppose I get back in the tallyho with the others," Gwen said, "then
Bobs won't know that I had a fainting spell. If she knew it, she would
feel that she ought to take me right home, and I don't want to go." Her
smile at Ralph seemed to imply that he was her fellow-conspirator.
"I'm not going to let you go," he heard himself saying.
So the change was made. Ralph turned The Whizz into a rear entrance, used
only by delivery autos, and in that way reached the garage.
He had asked Jack Beardsley to give him time to get out on the lawn
before he arrived, and so the three, who were still seated around a tea
table under a spreading oak, saw Ralph coming from the house at the same
time that the tallyho entered the front gate.
They little dreamed of all that had happened.