Part 12 (1/2)
The lady stared at the bedraggled party in amazed silence for a moment
Then Mrs Ford stepped impulsively forward
”I don't wonder you look surprised,” she said in her sweetlyhour But you see ere caught in this awful downpour and had to seek your house for refuge”
”Oh, I' the door wider androom ”I didn't ly accepted her invitation, ”that I was sorry you came, but that you were forced to cos? But you are wet!” she exclai wraps
”And we got it all,” said Mrs Ford with a wry s about twenty feet from our cars to your porch”
”Your cars!” the hostess repeated ”Then you motored down If I had known that I shouldn't have been so surprised at seeing you Pedestrians are rather rare on a night like this”
”Yes, and motorists, too, if they have any sense,” said Mollie dryly, at which they all laughed and their hostess looked still more interested
”Please sit down and dry out a little,” said the lady, indicating a grate fire which had evidently only recently been lighted on account of the chill in the air ”I'lad I had the fire racious sht”
Then she excused herself, and the girls held out eager hands to the fire
”This is bliss,” sighed Amy
”Well, this is soo,” chuckled Grace
”I thought ere in for a night in the ain,” agreed Betty, leaning an ar her wet skirt as close to the fire as she could
”We were just wondering,” she added, addressing Mrs Ford, ”whether, if Mollie's car got stuck, you would rather have Grace and et soh,”
she added ruefully, ”if we couldn't pull through that ton to do it”
”Probably the only gasoline vehicles they have in the place are jitneys,” agreed Mollie, with a chuckle
”I wonder,” A hostess is She seems so lovely It seems odd to meet a person like her and a house like this out in the wilderness”
”Yes, one does rather expect a far old farreed Mrs Ford
”Well, ested Mollie, adding wickedly as she turned a merry eye on Grace: ”The kind Roy once said he'd like to be Remember, Grace?”
”Yes, I remember,” Grace answered in a tone that indicated the memory was not a pleasant one ”And I told him he had better drop that idea in a hurry if he expected hedto do with hiled exasperatingly
”Well, I don't know,” remarked Betty, in an altruistic effort to pour oil upon the troubled waters, ”that I would particularlya scientific farround with orchards and cows and chickens--”
”And potato bugs,” finished Grace, while the girls laughed leaive , ”it'se on the horizon just now”
The next retted her innocent little speech, for she could see that the ht ht of Will--dear, bright,wounded in some far-away hospital, how badly wounded they could not know, and dared not think