ANNE AND SARA SEEK ADVENTURE
"Anne," said Mrs. Wellington, as she came in from her drive a few
minutes later, "your chauffeur drives too fast. The car passed me,
cutting through Brenton Road a while ago, at a perfectly insane pace.
Some one--how do you do, Sara, I 'm delighted to have you with us--was
in the tonneau, whom I took to be Koltsoff, although there was such a
blur I was n't certain. Was it he?"
"Yes, mother," Anne glanced at Sara. "Isn't it maddening! Some urgent
summons, he said, made it necessary for him to go; and he may be away
all night. Of course that punctured the party at Freebody."
"It is maddening," Sara hastened to observe.
Mrs. Wellington compressed her lips.
"I had told him your father would arrive this evening. But of course
he must have failed to remember that. Fortunately, he will not come on
from New York until to-morrow--I 've had a wire. Have you any idea the
Prince will be with us to-morrow? Sir Arthur Baddeley will be down
from Bar Harbor for the week; Bob Marie is coming with your father, and
two or three of the Tuxedo crowd, Sallie and Blanche Turnure and Willie
Whipple will be here by Wednesday for the ball, certainly."
"I don't know, really," said Anne, "but I imagine so, of course."
Sara gazed at Mrs. Wellington curiously. It was true the woman was
outwardly unperturbed, characteristically so, but Sara had never before
been able to read in that mask-like face so many indications of inward
irritation. Anne's sly glance told her that she, too, had been able to
enjoy a rare opportunity of penetrating beneath the surface.
Mrs. Wellington toyed with her lorgnette for a moment.
"Anne, if Koltsoff returns and I don't see him, let me know the very
first minute, will you, please?" She glanced at the girl with an
expression best described as detached. "If it interests you any, my
daughter, you succeeded in making a sensation this afternoon--you and
Koltsoff. I gather that everything was done but placarding him; and I
have heard of at least eight persons you cut in the Casino."
"Oh--mother, by the way, if I am not too inquisitive," said Anne,
hastening to change the trend of thought, "I read, or heard, somewhere
that father was interested in getting hold of a Russian issue of
railroad bonds, or something of the sort. Is Prince Koltsoff
concerned?"
"Your father has no business dealings with him. Dismiss that thought.
Railroad bonds--I believe he was looking into them. I don't know the
details, or rather do not recall them. I do remember, though, his
saying that he had relinquished the opportunity to the French with
great pleasure."
"Oh," said Anne, "I imagined his visit here was a mingling of business
with pleasure."
"I don't know what it is a mingling of, I 'm quite sure," said Mrs.
Wellington. She turned to go. "I 'm dining out to-night, at the
Cunningham-Jones'. I shouldn't have accepted, but you were to be at
Berger's with your theatre party. You won't mind, Sara?"
"Not at all, Mrs. Wellington, don't bother about me. I hope I 'm not
company."
Mrs. Wellington smiled. She was very partial to the young widow.
"The boys are at Ochre Point for the night. You might call up people
if you want company for dinner, Anne."
"To think," cried Anne, as her mother left the room, "how events have
shaped themselves for us! Of course we shan't dine at home; I 'll have
Emilia tell Mrs. Stetson after we have gone. Now, Sara, what can we do
exciting?" Her eyes flashed with animation as she gazed at her friend.
"Shall it be shop girl disguises with dinner on Thames Street, or what?"
"I know," cried Sara. "We 'll put on shirt-waist suits and plain hats,
muss our hair a bit, and take a trip on a sight-seeing barge."
"Lovely. Mc--Mr. Armitage can take us to the starting place at
Easton's Beach and then pick us up there when we get back. After
that--"
"Hoop-la," laughed Sara, and the two young women--nothing but school
girls now--fell into each other's arms, hugging joyously.
When Armitage appeared again at the _porte cochère_ a few minutes
before five o'clock, two very changed, but merry young women awaited
him. Anne flashed her eyes at Armitage.
"To Easton's Beach, McCall," she said sweetly.
Easton's Beach was at the height of the day's exodus of excursionists
to Providence, Fall River, Taunton and elsewhere, as Armitage drew
alongside the sun-baked board walk in front of the main bathing
pavilion. Trolley cars, which had rolled empty down the long hill by
the ocean side, were now ascending laden to the guards, and the ocean,
relieved of its bathers, whose suits of multifarious cuts and colors
had grievously marred the blue waters, had recovered its beautiful
serenity.
"We are going to take a barge ride, McCall," said Anne, as they
alighted from the car. "You might follow us at a respectful distance,
though, so you can pick us up when we decide to get out."
Armitage touched his cap and sat watching amusedly, while Anne and Sara
with exaggerated swinging strides walked toward a barge comfortably
filled with a heterogeneous assemblage of sightseers. They paused
uncertainly at the side of the clumsy vehicle and were thus espied by
the driver, who was on the point of starting his horses.
"Whoa!" he cried, pulling at the reins. "Here you are, ladies. Two
seats in the front for the sunset drive. Last chance of the day. All
the way round for fifty cents. All points pointed out, with inside
information."
Sara glanced doubtfully at Anne, but the girl already had her foot on
the step.
"We ain't going all the way," she said. "Can we get out where we
please?"
"Sure, the sooner the better," cried the driver cheerfully.
"All right," said Anne, clambering in; "come on, Jane."
Sara followed obediently, kneeing her way along the seat to Anne's side.
"The Cliff Walk," said the driver, swinging his whip to the left as
they drove up the hill.
"Is that where society people walk?" asked Anne.
"Naw, only the common people," replied the oracle. "Any society person
found there would be ostracized."
"They would!" exclaimed an elderly Irishman, smoking a pipe at Anne's
side. "Is th' ground too poor fur their phroud feet?"
"Only think," said a stout woman behind them, leaning forward, "the
cottage owners have been tryin' to close up the walk to the public. My
brother 's a grocer clerk here and he says the city would be better off
without the cottagers. They 're awful! Don't pay their bills and such
carryin's on--you 've no idea."
"Use n't you to live here?" asked Sara. "I thought I seen you in the
city."
"Not me. I live over to Jamestown," said the stout woman.
In the meantime, Anne had noted to her disgust that two men in white
duck trousers and straw yachting caps were trying to catch their
attention. It was not to be wondered at, for despite the broad-brimmed
hats tilted well over their foreheads and hair in studied disarray, by
way of disguise, no more dashing pair had ever patronized Newport's
sightseeing system. Of course this aspect of their adventure had not
occurred to Anne and she was about to pull Sara's skirt and suggest
that they abandon the trip forthwith, when that young woman glancing
about for fresh material, suddenly turned pale.
"Anne!" she whispered. "For heaven's sake! There 's my cook at the
other end of that back seat--the fat, red-headed man. What shall I do?"
Anne, without replying, touched the driver and handed him a two-dollar
bill.
"Keep that," she said, "and please let us out at once."
And so, just a bit panic-stricken, but with ardor undimmed, the two
awaited the motor car.
"We might have known!" observed Sara. "Do you suppose he recognized
me?"
Anne was laughing.
"How in the world could he help it?"
"Of course," said Sara, her face lighting with the humor of the
incident. "I shan't care at all, provided he does n't give me notice."
They were quite ready for Armitage when he came up in the car.
"Where to now, Sara?" Anne stamped her foot. "Isn't that the way!
When you have the opportunity and the desire for a good time you can't
imagine what to do."
"Well, let us get into the car, anyway," said Sara, "those detestable
creatures who were in the barge have actually followed us."
So they entered the motor. Armitage turned inquiringly, but Anne shook
her head.
"One moment, if you please."
"I wanted to ask you, Miss Wellington, if you thought I could get away
to-night about seven o'clock?" He glared defiantly at Sara, who was
ostentatiously concealing her face in her hand. "I have rather an
important engagement."
"Why--" Anne glanced at Sara, who seeing an opening for a new avenue
of fun, was now laughing unreservedly.
"You really can't think of it, you know, dear," she said. "Why, at
seven o'clock he will just begin to be useful."
Anne saw the chauffeur's shoulders shrug angrily, and it amused her.
"Cut through here and drive toward the Training Station," she
commanded, "and we 'll think about seven o'clock, McCall."
Sara, who had been vigorously nodding and screwing up her eyes at
Armitage's back, laughed musically.
"Anne," she said, "your chauffeur is badly trained as to manners.
Really, he suggests a man graduated from the Fifth Avenue buses, don't
you know."
"You must make allowances, Sara; he's only an improvised chauffeur."
"I know; but he 's hardly of the chauffeur type. Now as a
detective--can't you imagine him in a pair of false whiskers?"
"I 've always suspected him of a wig," Anne giggled, "or reinforced
putees."
With a quick jerking of levers, Armitage stopped the car. He turned
around, looked at Sara quietly for a moment and then at Anne.
Something in her face told him what he wanted to know.
"Sara," he said, "for a first-class, large gauge sieve, I commend you
to any one."