"Why, my dear," exclaimed Fritzie, "not stop to speak to Robert!"
"It will delay us, and I am crazy to get home."
"It won’t keep us five minutes and the grounds are beautiful."
"We will see them to-morrow. Drive straight ahead, Peters."
Fritzie protested as they flew past the lodge. "I feel like a heathen going by The Towers in this way. I hope Robert won’t hear of it."
"I will take all the blame," returned Alice, with a bravado she did not feel. Then she laid her hand on Fritzie’s arm. "You may come back right after luncheon."
When they reached the hill beyond Black Rock they saw Cedar Point lying below in the sunshine of the lake. Alice cried out at the beauty of it. Her spirits rose with an emotion that surprised her. For an instant she could not speak. Her eyes moistened and the load that had oppressed her a moment earlier took wings. Before she had quite recovered, the car was down the hill and speeding through the green gates, up the winding avenue of maples, and swinging in an alarming ellipse around to the front of the house.
She ran in through the open doors as if she had left it all but yesterday. Flowers were everywhere. She passed from room to room with the bubbling spirits of a child and dropped at last into her own little chair at her toilet table. Annie, infected with the happiness of her mistress, was wreathed in smiles as she took her hat, while Fritzie, sitting in dusty veil and gloves, telephone in hand, was calling The Towers and in the same breath begging her maid to prepare her bath. No response to Fritzie’s telephone message came until late in the afternoon. About four o’clock Robert Kimberly called her up.
"This is a pretty time for you to be answering, Robert. Where have you been all day?"
"Driving with Francis. He hasn’t been very well lately. I took him over to the Sound. How is Mrs. MacBirney, Fritzie?"
Alice took the receiver. "How do you do, Mr. Kimberly?"
"Glad to hear your voice. Fritzie has been telling me stories about you all winter."
Alice controlled the pleasant excitement that came with the familiar sound of his own voice. "You mustn’t believe the stories you hear," she laughed. "How are you all?"
"One story to-day sounded pretty straight."