iles down the road, they hesitated to make
the trip because of the threatening weather. I guess it is just as well
for them they did not come," and she paused to listen to the rain which
was still pouring down in torrents.

Mrs. Ford made an appropriate answer, and the two ladies entered into a
little confidential chat that left the girls pretty much to their own
devices. And they were trying their best not to disgrace themselves and
to pay decorous attention to what their hostess was saying, while their
hearty young appetites were crying their protests aloud.

At last came the new maid whom their hostess had described as 'so
utterly helpless,' looking to the famished girls an angelic being,
bearing about her an aroma of tomato soup and fried chicken, more
tempting than ambrosia.

Without any perceptible hesitation, the girls immediately began to eat
and continued the agreeable occupation without interruption to the end
of the meal, save for an answer to a question or two asked by their
hostess.

The helpless maid was just bringing in an enormous layer cake to the
accompaniment of admiring glances from the girls when the sound of a
latch key in the door made the lady of the house look up with a start.

"It must be my son!" she said, rising hastily, "if you will excuse me a
moment--"

Then came the sound of a hearty greeting in a masculine voice, followed
by a slithery sound of wet clothing. Evidently the newcomer was
divesting himself of some uncomfortably damp apparel. They could hear
his mother speaking in a low voice--probably she was preparing him to
meet the unexpected guests.

"By Jove! did you say two cars?" they heard him exclaim, and it suddenly
seemed to them there was something familiar about his voice. "Now I
wonder--all right, Mother. Just give me a minute to get some dry
clothes on and I'll be right with you. Gosh, but I'm starved!"

The girls smiled sympathetically, for was it only half an hour ago they
had been in that identically uncomfortable state.

"I bet he's nice," said Mollie to Betty, in a whisper just before their
hostess once more entered the room. "Anybody with an appetite like that,
has to be."

"Oh, you shouldn't have waited for me," said the lady, noting that the
ice cream that had followed hard on the heels of the chocolate cake had
begun to melt. "I don't know what to do with that boy," she added,
smiling with a mixture of irritation and fond indulgence. "When he gets
out on