"Oh, she will!" said Ellen, confidently. "But, say, Mary Bell, why
don't you walk over to the hotel with me now and ask Johnnie if
she'll stay if your aunt doesn't come? I don't believe she and Walt
are going."

"They mightn't want to leave the hotel on account of drummers on the
night train," said Mary Bell, dubiously. "And that's the very time
mama gets most scared. She's always afraid there are boes on the
train."

"Boes!" said Ellen, scornfully, "what could a bo do!"

"Well, I WILL go over and talk to Johnnie," said Mary Bell, with
sudden hope. "I'm going to get all ready except my dress, in case
Aunt Mat comes," she confided eagerly, when she had kissed the
drowsy mother, and they were on their way.

"Say, did you know that Jim Carr is going to-night with Carrie
Parmalee?" said Ellen, significantly, as the girls crossed the
clean, bare dooryard, under the blossoming locust trees.

Mary Bell's heart grew cold,--sank. She had hoped, if she DID go,
that some chance might make her escort no other than Jim Carr.

"It'll make me sick if she gets him," said Ellen, frankly. Although
engaged herself, she felt an unabated interest in the love-affairs
about her.

"Is he going to drive her over?" asked Mary Bell, clearing her
throat.