Bess giggled. "If I thought she'd do that I'd almost be willing to stay, for that would be something worth seeing."
"Bess, there are so many things worth seeing," Nan took up the end of the sentence seriously, "that I wish I were quintuplets so that I could be in at least five places at once."
"You and me, too," Bess agreed, "but just now the one me that is here is going to buckle down to work. Those exams are no joke."
So the two girls took out their books, and before long there was no sound to be heard in the room but the ticking of the clock and the occasional turning of a page. They studied until the signal came, "Lights out!"
"Welcome to our city!" It was Walter's hearty voice greeting Nan and Bess as their train pulled into the busy Chicago station.
Nan caught her breath. How nice he looked! How much older he seemed. She smiled up at him.
"You seem to have a habit of meeting us at stations," she remarked. They all laughed, remembering Nan and Bess' first entrance into Freeling, their first ride with Walter and Linda Riggs' consequent anger.
"And you seem to have a habit of going places," Walter returned as he smiled back at them. How pretty they looked! How much older they seemed! How pink Nan's cheeks were! Could it be that she was embarrassed? The very same thoughts that were running through Nan's mind were running through his. They both felt easier when Grace, Amelia, Laura, and Rhoda descended on them.
"Come on, you old pokes," Grace said. "We've got things to do."
"Yes," Amelia contributed her bit, "and we're late already." With this she looked meaningly at her latest acquisition--a new wristwatch.
"What, another?" Laura appeared to be stunned at the information.
"Yes, funny," Amelia wrinkled up her nose at her friend. "It was a going away present from my dad. Don't you like it?"
The girls all crowded round to see. It was a pretty little thing, small and oblong and tailored looking and it went quite perfectly with the pretty tailored suit that Amelia was wearing. She turned it so they could see her initials on the back and the date, all engraved in Old English style.
Now as they crowded into the Mason town car and were whisked away to the big Mason home, they compared notes on their visits. Nan and Bess had been to four--no less than four--bon voyage parties, and they were laden with all sorts of gifts from their friends and former class-mates at Tillbury High School. Rhoda was the proud possessor of new luggage, the gift of cowboys on her Dad's ranch. Amelia had her watch, Grace a sizable check to do with as she pleased on her trip. And Laura had the greatest surprise of all.