"Now, let's see, when can we start?" He took out his watch as he spoke. "Hm-m-m. It will take a little time to pack," he reflected. "Lassies are such fussy creatures. They have to have two or three dresses--"
"Two or three!" Nan exclaimed, "Why, cousin Adair, we have to have just dozens if we are going to stay away all summer."
"Who said you were?" The old Scotchman roared and then threw back his head and laughed long and heartily at the young girl who seemed so self-possessed no matter what he said or did. Nan laughed with him and then, turning toward Bess, she introduced her eccentric old relative and his pretty daughter, Alice, a young lady about five years older than Nan who, up to this time, had said nothing, but had watched her father with amusement.
At the introduction, Adair MacKenzie bowed gracefully and, taking Bess's hand lightly in his, kissed it quickly. "You're a nice lassie," he said then. "Now let's all sit down and talk a while about this trip to Mexico."
"To Mexico!" Bess was wide-eyed as the exclamation slipped off her tongue. "Are we going to Mexico?"
"Why, yes. That was all settled weeks ago," MacKenzie knitted his brows as he looked at Bess. "Such a bright young lassie and yet she didn't know that!"
"Don't mind father," Alice took Bess's hand in hers. "He goes about planning all these things and never says anything to anyone until he has everything all ready. It used to wear me out, but now I think it is quite charming of him. Of course, it keeps everyone at home in a constant state of turmoil and it makes the housekeeper furious, but then we manage."
"Manage!" the old man exploded again. "Manage! Why, you imp, you, you love it and you know you do. It's the spice of life to you. Mexico, Europe, Alaska, South America, Egypt, why, the world's a place to live in, not just to read about. India and China and Japan, these are places we haven't been."
"And daddy, we're not going just yet." Alice acted as though she wanted to forestall any possibility of their starting off the next day or the next hour for the Orient. "Remember, it's Mexico we're going to this summer. We're going to live in that big hacienda that was dumped into your hands when you sued those clients of yours that were exporters in Mexico City. Oh, daddy, remember, when you came back the last time, you said it was a grand old place with gorgeous vines flinging scarlet sprays all over everything."