Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/69

Rh “Well, you might get a carriage up there to the stable on the hill, or you might walk all the way. ’T ain’t so dreadfully far. Here’s where our road turns off; I suppose I’d better let you off here.”

So, greatly to their own surprise, Brenda and Nora now found themselves standing rather helplessly in the middle  of the road.

“I don’t feel a bit like walking, do you?—and up that great hill, too. Is n’t it maddening? They ’ll be through luncheon by the time we get there.”

“I must say,” responded Brenda, “that Frances might have sent a carriage to look for us—or something.”

Just then they heard some one calling in a rather wheezy voice, “Young ladies, young ladies!” and, turning, they  beheld the fat woman of the omnibus waddling toward  them.

“Young ladies,” she said, as she drew near, “there’s a telliphone in me son’s shop, and you ’re very welcome to  use it. I’m thinking that Mr. Pounder would n’t want youse to be walking this hot day.”

The girls thanked her cordially for the suggestion, wondering, at the same time, that they had n’t thought  of a telephone before they had left Lynn. I am afraid, however, if the truth were told, they were a little too  anxious to show their independence and their ability to  get on without asking questions. They did not know that the more experienced a traveller is the more likely  is he to make all inquiries needed to set him right on  his journey.