gs and tear her hair out
by the roots."

"Why didn't you do it then?" demanded excited Bess, and at this query
even Walter, who had been more incensed than any of the girls at the
insolent speech of Linda's, had to laugh.

"Yes, I would look pretty, wouldn't I?" laughed Nan, all her wrath
vanishing on the instant, although her dislike of purse-proud Linda was
more real than ever, "announcing my arrival in Jacksonville by a street
fight?"

"You would look pretty any way--even pulling Linda's hair out," laughed
Walter in her ear.

"Please don't be foolish, Walter," returned Nan loftily, at which, for
some unaccountable reason, Walter only chuckled the more.

The speech and the chuckle troubled Nan. It seemed in some ridiculous
fashion to bear out the silly things Bess had said about her and Walter
earlier in the trip.

She forgot all about her perplexity a few moments later, however, when
Walter helped Nan and Bess and Grace into the roomy tonneau of his big
car, put Rhoda in the front seat, squeezed himself in behind the wheel,
and started the motor.

"Well, how do you like Jacksonville, girls?" he called back to them as
the machine glided easily forward. "As good as Tillbury, is it?" he
added, with a glance at Nan and Bess.

"Not nearly," answered Bess loyally, although in her heart she knew that
they could put two or three Tillburys in Jacksonville and never miss
them.

The girls had known in a rather vague way that Jacksonville was a big
place, but they had never expected to see anything like the bustling,
thriving, wide-awake city they now drove through.

"Why, it is almost as noisy and crowded as New York," said Bess,
wide-eyed, as Walter skilfully threaded his way through the heavy
traffic. "And we thought that was simply awful. Walter, please be
careful."

"Don't worry," Walter sang back, grazing the rear wheel of another
machine by the very narrowest margin possible. "If we did hit anything,
we wouldn't be the ones to get hurt. This old bus could stop an express
train."

"Maybe it could," retorted Bess. "But please try it some time when you
are alone."

"Don't mind him," said Grace, with her quiet smile. "You know Walter
never does all he says."

"Don't I though----" Walter was beginning, when his sister cut him off
by turning eagerly to Nan and Bess.

"We're stopping at the Hampton," she said, the Hampton being one of the
largest and most important of all the large and important hotels in