CHAPTER XIV
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Nan was really going to Palm Beach! She could scarcely realize her goodfortune.
Grace had written that some cousins who were to go had disappointedthem, so good accommodations were assured to Nan and Bess when theyreached Palm Beach.
Nan was up in her bedroom in the evening looking dreamily out of thewindow and imagining she was already at the famous winter resort whenshe gave a start.
Two men were slinking around, behind some trees on the opposite side ofthe street! From time to time they gazed at the house as if looking forsomebody.
"The same men! What can it mean?"
Nan breathed the words to herself. She had seen these men before sincecoming home from school. They had leered at her when on an errand to thedrugstore, and one of them had acted as if he wanted to speak to herwhile she was at the depot asking for a timetable. But a man friend hadcome up to greet her and the stranger had slunk away.
Nan's first impulse was to call her father and mother. But then shehesitated. Why worry her parents, and especially her mother, when, afterall, it might mean little or nothing?
She looked again. Some men had come up the street. At sight of them thetwo slinking ones shrank back and presently hurried away.
"I hope I never see them again," said the girl to herself. But this wishwas not to be gratified.
Yet the next day Nan gave the strange men hardly a thought. There wereso many things to be done in preparation for the great trip.
"It's not like going out to Rose Ranch, where any old thing was goodenough to wear," Nan confided to Bess. "We've got to look our best, onGrace's account as well as our own."
"And Walter's," added Bess, and then Nan promptly threw a book at herchum.
A day more, and then came the all-important time for departure.
"Oh, just to think of it! We are really and truly going!"
Nan was seated on an overturned suitcase on the porch of the little"dwelling in amity." Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her tokeep her from jumping up and running off madly somewhere, anywhere--justto relieve her tremendous excitement.
Never in her life had it seemed so hard to keep still. Her trunk hadgone to the station, her bag was packed, and everything was ready tocatch the ten-o'clock train for New York. From there she and Bess wereto take the boat, which was to carry them swiftly down the coast toJacksonville, the gateway to Florida.
Everything was in readiness that is save Momsey. All that separated herfrom that desirable state was one small and pretty fur hat which Momseywas just now fitting on in front of the mirror in the littlesitting-room.
But it did take a long time just to put on one hat, thought Nan with asigh. Momsey never used to be so slow. Then, unable to bear it a momentlonger, she jumped to her feet and peeped in at the door of the little"dwelling in amity."
What she saw made her pause, a smothered exclamation on her lips, hereyes dancing. For Papa Sherwood was there with Momsey and he was lookingat her with as much admiration in his eyes as though they had beenmarried only one year, instead of--oh, Nan couldn't remember how many!
"That trip overseas was just what you needed to make a girl of youagain, Momsey," Papa Sherwood was saying in a tone that matched hislook. "You might be our Nan's older sister. And isn't that a new hat?"
Momsey had started to make him a demure curtsey when Nan's clear laughinterrupted the tete-a-tete.
"Excuse me," she said, her eyes dancing. "Far be it from me to be in theway of anything--and, Momsey, you do look wonderful in that hat--but youknow that train won't wait all day. Oh, Momsey! Papa Sherwood!"--shewaltzed in upon them and hugged them gaily--"isn't it perfectly,wonderfully gorgeous?"
"What now, honey?" asked Momsey, as she rearranged the pretty hat whichNan had pushed down unbecomingly over one eye.
"What now?" repeated Nan breathlessly. "What now? Why,Florida--Jacksonville--Palm Beach! No, don't look at me as though I hadgone crazy. I'm only raving. Come on, come on, you slow pokes." She halfpushed her laughing parents toward the door. "You can carry thesuitcase, Papa Sherwood, and I'll carry the hat box. There's only oneother bundle, and I'll take that one and Momsey can bring up the rearwith the lunch. I wonder what Bess will say when she sees the lunch,"she chuckled, as her father carefully locked the door of the littlehouse and put the key in his pocket.
"Well, I think I know what she will say when she tastes it," said herfather as all three started down the street toward the more pretentioushouse where Bess lived. "For Momsey put up the lunch with her ownhands--and I saw what went into it."
"Yes, and you might tell her, honey," added Mrs. Sherwood, with a softlaugh, "what hard work I had to keep you from eating all the nuts fromthe brown bread sandwiches."
"Oh, Momsey, don't," sighed Nan. "You will make me hungry again, and Ihave just had breakfast. See! There's Bess. Goodness, doesn't she lookpretty?"
Both Momsey and Papa Sherwood had to admit that Bess was very prettyindeed in the bright winter sunlight, but each privately thought thattheir Nan, with her sparkling brown eyes and flushed cheeks, was, in herown way, even prettier than Bess.
"Hello, you folks!" called Bess as she reached them, out of breath fromexercise and excitement. "I thought you were never coming. Goodness!what are you carrying two grips for? One is enough for me." Then,without waiting for a reply, she raced on to another question. "And thatbox! What's in it, Nan?" She gazed suspiciously at Nan's mischievousface. "It looks like a lunch box. It never is!"
"Yes, it ever is," mimicked Nan, in exactly Bess's tone, adding with alaugh: "And Papa Sherwood very nearly ate all the nuts from thesandwiches."
"Nan----" began Mrs. Sherwood reproachfully; but at that moment Mrs.Harley appeared in the doorway and the reproaches were forgotten.
Momsey would not go inside, as the minutes to train time were gettingvery few, so after a short disappearance Mrs. Harley joined them andthey started toward the station together. The two girls, Nan and Bess,lead the way, swinging their bags and talking excitedly.
"I'm almost scared to death," confided Bess, as they turned the cornerthat led down to the station and the train that was to bear them so soonon their wonderful journey.
"Scared?" asked Nan, her eyes big with wonder. "What are you scaredabout?"
"Oh, I don't suppose I should call it exactly scared," retracted Bess."Just sort of excited and--and--nervous. Going all alone you know--andeverything."
"This isn't the first time we have traveled alone," said Nanpractically. "And we have always come out 'right side up with care.'"
"Oh, Nan, you _are_ so calm," sighed Bess in exasperation. "Won'tanything ever get you excited?"
"Excited," repeated Nan, gazing in amazement at her chum. "I'm soexcited this very minute that I'm all thrilly inside."
"If you are," said Bess, eyeing her judicially, "nobody would ever knowit. That's just the trouble with you," she added plaintively, "you arealways hiding things and having secrets from me when you know very wellthat no one ought ever to have a secret from her chum."
Nan put an arm about the waist of the girl and laughed.
"You can't quarrel with me, especially this morning, Bess," she said,adding soothingly: "Besides, I haven't had a secret from you in--oh,ever so long. Not since Beautiful Beulah."
For Bess had been very much put out indeed about Nan's secret possessionof Beautiful Beulah, the big doll that had formerly helped Nan over manydifficulties.
"I know," said Bess, in answer to Nan's declaration. "But that is justthe reason why I expect you to start something. You have been 'too goodto be true.'"
"Well, you are a silly," said Nan absently, as her eyes wandered downthe double line of shining rails to the spot where they disappeared inthe distance. "I wonder if that mean old train is going to be late afterall."
"No, there it is! There it is, Nan!" cried Bess, suddenly dancing wildlyup and down the platform. "Oh, tell the folks to hurry. Mother has myhat box. I never, never
could go to Palm Beach without that hat." Andshe ran back toward the older folks, waving her bag at them franticallywhile Nan looked after her laughingly.
"I wonder what Bess would do," she thought, without the slightest traceof conceit, "if she didn't have me to anchor her down all the time."
The train steamed into the station just as Momsey and Papa Sherwood andMrs. Harley, with the excited Elizabeth in the lead, rushed upon theplatform.
Nan was very much surprised to find that though she had become used torather frequent partings with Momsey and Papa Sherwood, this one was notone bit easier than the others had been.
She hugged Papa Sherwood, kissed Momsey a dozen times, in spite of thefact that Bess was tugging at her elbow, and finally stumbled some wayup the steps and into the car.
"Goodness! Anybody would think you were going away to stay forever,"gasped Bess, as she tried to disengage herself from a tangle of bag andhat box and umbrella. "For goodness' sake, look out, Nan. We aremoving." This, because Nan stuck her head far out of the window to get alast look at the dear folks on the platform.
"I know we're moving," sighed Nan, as she turned from the window andbegan patiently to separate Bess from her belongings and stow thearticles away in the wire basket overhead. "I always have a funnyfeeling as if I were leaving half of me behind every time I say good-byeto Momsey and Papa Sherwood."
"I should think you would be used to it by this time," said Bess, asshe removed her hat and fluffed out her pretty curls. "We certainlycan't complain of having to stay too much in one place."
"I should say not!" exclaimed Nan, as she thought of how many wonderfulthings had happened since that day when she had started out for thegreat north woods with Uncle Henry. "But, oh, Bess," she added, turninghappy eyes upon her chum, "we never went on quite such a wonderfuljourney as this--not even when we went to Rose Ranch."
"It all comes of having such nice friends," replied Bess, taking out atiny hand mirror and regarding the tip of her nose critically. "Andfriends with money," she added significantly.
"Bess! How you talk!" cried the girl from Tillbury, turning a shockedgaze upon her friend. For Nan Sherwood never failed to be shocked atElizabeth's very evident love of money and what it could buy. "If itwere only money we cared for we might have made friends with LindaRiggs, I suppose. I heard her say something about going to Europe nextsummer, and I shouldn't wonder if she would take Cora Courtney and oneor two more of her satellites with her. Perhaps if we had been verygood, she might have asked us."
"Well, it would have been fun," said Bess, wickedly enjoying the shockedlook that deepened on Nan's face. "Cheer up, Nan," she added with oneof her sudden changes of mood. "You know very well how I hate Linda.However," she continued, "I suppose we really ought to be grateful toher now."
"Grateful?" repeated Nan wonderingly.
"For damaging the heating plant up at school, silly," explained Bess,"and giving us a chance to go to Florida."