" Ruth lamented. "I just dread it."

"Oh, no you won't," Bab explained. "Mr. Dillon said he would talk matters
over with Mr. Hamlin, and that he had some influential friends over
there. You will have to pay your fine, Ruth, but you probably will not
have to appear at the trial. They will settle it privately."

"Girls," exclaimed Harriet, "I forgot to tell you something. There is a
big reception at the White House to-morrow evening, and Father says he
wishes to take the 'Automobile Girls' to present them to the President."

"How exciting!" exclaimed Grace Carter. "To think that the 'Automobile
Girls' are going to meet the President, and yet you speak of it as
calmly, Harriet Hamlin, as though it were an everyday affair."

"Oh, nonsense, Grace," Harriet begged. "It will be fun to go to the
White House with you. You girls are so interested in everything. But a
White House reception is an old story to me, and I am afraid there will
be a frightful crowd. But which one of you will go shopping with me
this morning?"

"I will," cried Mollie. "I'd dearly love to see the shops. We don't have
any big stores in Kingsbridge."

"Is there anything I can get for you, girls?" Harriet asked.

Ruth called her cousin over in the corner. "Will you please order flowers
for us to-morrow night!" Ruth requested. "Father told me to be sure to
get flowers whenever we wanted them."

"Lucky Ruth!" sighed Harriet. "I wish I had such a rich and generous
father as you have!"

"What can we wear to the President's reception to-morrow, Bab?" Mollie
whispered in her sister's ear, while Harriet and Ruth were having their
conference.

Bab thought for a moment. "You can wear the corn-colored frock you wore
to dinner with the Princess Sophia at Palm Beach. It is awfully pretty,
and you have never worn it since."

"That old thing!" cried Mollie, pouting.

"Suppose you get some pale yellow ribbons, Mollie, and I will make you a
new sash and a bow for your hair," Bab suggested.

Pretty Mollie frowned. "All right," she agreed.

Harriet and Mollie did not go at once to the shops. They drove first to
Harriet's dressmaker, the most fashionable in Washington.

"I must try on a little frock," Harriet explained. "We can do our
shopping afterwards. I want you to see a beautiful coat I am having made,
from a Chinese crepe shawl the Chinese Minister's wife gave me."

Madame Louise, the head of the dressmaking establishment, came in to
attend to Harriet.