Part 2 (1/2)
”That's all right. Direct us. I'm Darby of the Metropole. These young people belong to Mr. Ford's party.”
A moment later they had met Mr. Ford himself, issuing from his private room, vexed and anxious at their delay and starting out in their pursuit.
”Well, laggards! What does this mean? Wasting the time when there's so little of it? Mrs. Calvert's fretting so she can't eat her dinner and--in with you! In with you! There's but fifteen minutes before her train starts east!”
When a good natured man is angry he seems another person and Dorothy drew back in fear. But Alfaretta's own temper rose and she exclaimed:
”Don't scold us, please, Mr. Ford, it wasn't our fault!” while Leslie vainly tried to explain: ”A gentleman, a stranger, brought us here and paid our cab fare. I want a dollar, Dad, to refund him.”
But, for once, the doting father was deaf to his son's words. He did not even pause in his rapid stride along the corridor, fairly dragging Dorothy off her feet in his unconscious haste, and finally depositing her in an empty chair beside Aunt Betty's, with the remark:
”Here's your 'bad penny' again! She--they all--will learn some lessons up at San Leon, this summer, or I'm a mistaken man. The one thing n.o.body should dare lose is--time!”
Mrs. Calvert gave him a surprised look but she had also been hurt by Dorothy's absence during the brief s.p.a.ce that remained to them together, and she hastened to deliver the many last charges and bits of advice that seemed needful before their parting.
A waiter placed their dinner before the three young folks and Alfy and Leslie fell to work upon it with hungry zeal, but Dorothy could not eat.
Her eye had discovered a clock on the wall, with the hands pointing five minutes to three. At ten minutes past that hour the ”Eastern Limited”
would roll out of the station and she be left behind. In a sudden impulse, she threw her arms about Aunt Betty's neck, begging:
”Take me with you! Please take me with you! I--I love you best of all the world, so why shouldn't we keep together?”
If there were tears in Mrs. Calvert's bright, dark eyes, she did not allow them to fall. Unclasping her darling's arms and gently laying them down, she silently signalled to Mrs. Ford and almost as silently left the room.
The ”Gray Lady” followed and Aunt Betty whispered:
”I'm getting too old for good-bys. I'm going to slip away in the hotel stage and don't let Dolly follow me, please, till it's too late. She'll be all right again, directly, and--and so shall I. Good-by to you, though, and--that's all.”
Dolly dropped her head on the edge of the table, as Aunt Betty loosened her arms. She was bravely trying to overcome the sudden loneliness which possessed her and in this was helped by Alfy's warning:
”Dolly Doodles! Take your head out of your soup plate! Are you crazy?
There goes your ribbon right into the mess!”
The head was lifted so suddenly that the ribbon flew off and fell into the dish and its owner's tears ended in a giggle. Then her face flushed at thought of her own awkwardness and she looked down expecting a reprimand from Mrs. Calvert. When none came she lifted her eyes and found the next chair empty. This was a relief. She'd hide the ribbon before her aunt discovered it! But already the waiter had whisked that plate away and was supplying her with another.
Funny! Where Aunt Betty had gone! But, of course she'd merely left the room for a minute and would be back to say good-by. Then she picked at her food for a moment, wondering why Mr. Ford had also disappeared, and at the eagerness with which Leslie and Alfaretta enjoyed the good things served to them.
Gray Lady slipped back to her own place between the other two young people and began to ask them about the adventure which had delayed them.
Presently they were all talking together, even Dorothy adding her comments and forgetting to look again at that warning clock.
Besides, she was listening to the grumbles of Leslie who, for once, was angry against his father and was explaining to his mother:
”I never felt so ashamed of myself. The idea of letting that stranger, and the proprietor of a rival hotel, pay our cab fare! I wish you'd hand me the cash and I'll send a boy to hunt him up and settle. I--”
Mrs. Ford stopped his further complaints by a nod of her head and the odd remark:
”They must have arrived by this time and the others must be gone. Yes, they ought to be here. I hope they'll not delay us, too, as you did.
Money? No, dear, I can't give you that. Not in this case when your father has denied it. Ah! Fifteen minutes after three! Then our friends must be well out of the city by now.”
Lady Gray, as her son still loved to call her, now took her eyes from the clock she had been studying and cast a tender look upon the face of Dorothy. The girl had sprung up from her chair and had fixed her own gaze upon the time-piece while the color left her cheeks and she trembled violently. But Mrs. Ford's arm was about the slender waist and her voice was comforting: