Laura Crane - The Automobile Girls at Newport - or, Watching the Summer Parade

“Do you think they are valuable, mother?” persisted Barbara.

“I don’t think so,” her mother concluded. “Your uncle told me he looked over all your father’s papers that were of any value.”

After the two had mended the lock of the old trunk, and turned to leave the attic, Barbara was still thinking. “Dearest,” she said thoughtfully, “would you mind my going through those papers some time?” To herself Bab added: “I’d like to ask a clever business man, like Mr. Stuart, to explain them to me.”

But Mrs. Thurston sighed as she said: “Oh, yes, you may look them over, some day, if you like. It won’t make any difference.”

What difference it might make neither Mrs. Thurston or Barbara could then know.

Before daylight, on the great day, Mollie’s two arms encircled a sleepy Barbara, and a soft voice whispered in her ear: “It isn’t true, is it, Bab, that you and I, two insignificant little girls, who never could have conceived of anything so glorious, are off to-day for Newport, escorted by Ruth’s distinguished friend, ‘Mr. A. Bubble’?”

Barbara was wide awake in a minute.

“I suppose it’s true,” she said, “because it was last night, before we went to bed. Otherwise I would think we had both dreamed it.”

The two girls talked in excited whispers. It wouldn’t do to waken mother any earlier than they must, for she was tired with their preparations, though her daughters had persuaded her to have a little country girl in to help with the work, now that she was to have so important a person as Mr. Stuart for “boarder.”

But at seven o’clock it was mother who called:

“Get up, girls. It is time for coffee and clothes, if you are to start off at ten as you promised. It will not do to keep Miss Stuart and the girls waiting. As for Mr. A. Bubble, I don’t believe he can stand still, even if he tries.”

Aunt Sallie having called on Sunday afternoon, had waived ceremony and stayed to tea in the tiny cottage, so impressed was she with Mrs. Thurston’s quiet charm and gentle manners.

The two girls hurried into their kimonos. Mother had suggested these garments for this morning, since they were to dress so soon afterwards in their “going away” clothes.

By the time that Barbara and Mollie had put on their pretty brown and blue serge suits, with their dust coats over them, they heard strange noises on the front porch, mingled with giggles and whispers. Barbara was putting the sixth hat pin into her hat, and tying the motor veil so tightly under her chin that it choked her, when Mollie peeped out the front window.

“It’s a surprise party, I do believe,” she whispered. “There’s Harold Smith, with a big bunch of pink roses. I know they are for you. The girls have little bundles in their hands. What fun! I didn’t know they had heard of our trip. How fast news does fly around this village.”

While Mollie and Barbara were saying their good-byes on their little veranda there was equal excitement at the big hotel.

Before breakfast Ruth had gone out to the garage with her arm in her father’s.

“I want to see with my own eyes, Dad,” she said, “that the machine is all right. Isn’t it well that I have a taste for mechanics, even though I am a girl? Suppose I hadn’t studied all those automobile books with you until I could say them backwards, and hadn’t helped you over all the accidents – you never would have let me go on this heavenly trip, would you? I am going to be as careful as can be, just to show you did right to trust me, also not to give Aunt Sallie a chance to say, ‘I told you so.’”

Ruth had pretty, sunny, red-gold hair and big, gray-blue eyes. Though she wasn’t exactly a beauty, her face was so frank, and her coloring so fresh and lovely, many people thought her very good-looking.

Mr. Stuart smiled at his daughter’s enthusiasm. “She’s ‘a chip of the old block,’” he said to himself. “She loves fun and adventure and ‘getting there,’ like a man. I am not going to stand in her way.”

Mr. Stuart was feeling rather nervous about the trip this morning, but he didn’t intend Ruth to know.

To judge by the looks of the automobile, the chauffeur must have been up all night. The machinery was cleaned and oiled. The extra tires, in their dark red leather cases, were strapped to the sides of the car. A great box of extra rugs and wraps, rubber covers for the machine and mackintoshes in case of rain, was tied on the back. Between the seats was an open hamper for lunch, with an English tea service in one compartment, and cups, saucers, a teapot and a hot-water jug and alcohol lamp, all complete. The luncheon was to be sent down later from the hotel.

“You are to take your meals at the inns along the way, when you prefer,” Mr. Stuart had explained, “but I don’t mean to have you run the risk of starving in case you are delayed, or an accident occurs. Be sure to take your picnic lunch along with you, when you start out each day. What you don’t eat, feed to the small boys along the road, who will insist on playing guide.”

Aunt Sallie was the only one of the hotel party who enjoyed breakfast. Grace had driven over early, and was breakfasting with Ruth in order to save delay. Both the girls and Mr. Stuart were too excited to take much interest in their bacon and eggs, but Aunt Sallie ate with a resigned expression that seemed to say: “Perhaps this is my last meal on earth.” Yet, secretly, she was almost as delighted as were the girls in the prospect of the trip.

“Now, Sallie, you are not to go if you don’t wish to,” Mr. Stuart had protested. “You must not let Ruth drag you into this trip against your will.”

But all he could persuade his sister to answer was: “If Ruth is going on such an extraordinary excursion, then, at least, I shall be along to see that nothing worse happens to her.”

Gladys Le Baron came into the dining-room, stopping in front of Ruth’s table. “You dear things,” she drawled in her most careful society manner, “how can you look so fresh so early in the morning? I hope you appreciate my getting up to see you off.” Gladys wore a lingerie frock more appropriate for a party than for the breakfast room.

But Ruth answered good naturedly. “I do appreciate it, if it is such an effort for you. Did you know Mr. Townsend is going to ride over to the Thurston’s with us to see us start? He tells me you and he are both to be in Newport while we are there.”

“Yes,” Gladys declared with more airs than before. “Mrs. Erwin has asked me to be one of the house-party she’s to have for her ball. She told me I could bring a friend along, and I have asked Mr. Townsend.”

“Wonderful! We won’t expect you to associate with us!” laughed Grace.

“Gladys,” Ruth asked, “would you like to drive over to Mrs. Thurston’s with us? Father is going, and the carriage will be there to bring him back.”

“I would like to go,” murmured Gladys, “if I didn’t have on this old frock. I don’t know Mollie and Barbara very well, but I suppose I shall have to see a great deal of them, now you have taken them up. I wonder how they will behave at Newport? They have hardly been out of Kingsbridge before.”

Grace and Ruth both looked angry, and Mr. Stuart broke in, quite curtly: “I am sure we can depend on their behaving becomingly, which is all that is necessary at Newport or any other place.” Ruth’s father was a business acquaintance of Gladys’s father, and had known her mother when the latter was a girl, but the airs of Mrs. Le Baron and her society daughter were too much for his western common sense. Only Aunt Sallie was impressed by their imposing manner.

Ruth was very popular at the big summer hotel, and a number of the guests had assembled to see her off. But Ruth let her father run the car and sat quietly by his side. “You’ll turn over the command to me, captain, won’t you, when the trip really commences?” and she squeezed his arm with a little movement of affection.