“Well, you might get a carriage up there to the stable on the hill, or you might walk all the way. ’T ain’t so dreadfully far. Here’s where our road turns off; I suppose I’d better let you off here.”
So, greatly to their own surprise, Brenda and Nora now found themselves standing rather helplessly in the middle of the road.
“I don’t feel a bit like walking, do you?—and up that great hill, too. Is n’t it maddening? They ’ll be through luncheon by the time we get there.”
“I must say,” responded Brenda, “that Frances might have sent a carriage to look for us—or something.”
Just then they heard some one calling in a rather wheezy voice, “Young ladies, young ladies!” and, turning, they beheld the fat woman of the omnibus waddling toward them.
“Young ladies,” she said, as she drew near, “there’s a telliphone in me son’s shop, and you ’re very welcome to use it. I’m thinking that Mr. Pounder would n’t want youse to be walking this hot day.”
The girls thanked her cordially for the suggestion, wondering, at the same time, that they had n’t thought of a telephone before they had left Lynn. I am afraid, however, if the truth were told, they were a little too anxious to show their independence and their ability to get on without asking questions. They did not know that the more experienced a traveller is the more likely is he to make all inquiries needed to set him right on his journey.
