Nan began to feel great confusion herself. It was not so funny, after all!
"Why--why, then you do _not_ have this car for hire?" she asked.
"No, ma'am," said the boy, meekly. He was looking at Nan Sherwood admiringly, for she made a very pretty picture standing there in the strong glow of the electric light. "But I didn't mind bringing you up--not at all."
"You are an awful chump, Walter," observed the girl who had spoken before. "Grace said you could do an errand right; but it seems you're quite as big a dunce as your sister."
"Grace is not a dunce, Cora Courtney!" exclaimed the boy, with some show of spirit, as he started his car, not having shut off his engine. "Good night," he said to Nan, and was gone around the curve of the drive as Charley brought his lazy horses to a halt before the door.
"Here I am, girls!" cried Linda Riggs, putting her head out of the 'bus window. Then she saw Nan and Bess standing on the steps of the portico, and she demanded involuntarily:
"How did those two girls get here ahead of me?"
"Well! I must say it's a good joke on you, Linda," said the tall girl, called Cora Courtney, in response to Miss Riggs' observation.
"What do you mean?" snapped the railroad magnate's daughter.
"Why, they came up from the station in the auto we girls sent after you. You know it's against the rules for us to go down into the town so late, so we couldn't send a delegation for you; but that little Grace Mason said her brother would bring you up."
"Walter Mason!" exclaimed Linda, hopping out of the old 'bus. "Is that who was driving that car?"
"Yes. That was Walter. And Walter is as big a dunce as his sister," declared Cora, crossly. "He went right by you and brought up these two girls."
Linda's face was very much flushed. That she had overreached herself in this matter, taught the obstinate girl nothing. She had deliberately misinformed the 'bus driver, when she told him there were no other girls on the train, and had hurried him away from the station.
So she had overlooked Walter Mason and his car, and the boy had not seen her. Her scowl as she looked upon the now calm Nan and the almost petrified Bess, did not improve Linda's personal appearance.
"Oh! I am not surprised at anything _those_ two do," scoffed the rich girl, loftily.