Ned. "Maybe
she won't rustle her silks and satins at you."

But Ned only laughed, and kept on laughing as his mother appeared in the
vestibule with a puzzled look at the empty seat in the tonneau of the Fire
Bird.

Dorothy was the first to reach the porch.

"She didn't come," was her wholly unnecessary remark as Mrs. White opened
the outer door.

"Isn't that strange!" replied the aunt. "Do you suppose anything could
have happened?"

"I don't know. I hope not. She promised so definitely that I can't
understand it," went on Dorothy.

Nat remained in the car as Ned drove it to the garage.

"I'm so sorry, after all the extra trouble to get up a good dinner,"
apologized Dorothy as she laid aside her wraps.

"Oh, well, we can all enjoy that," replied Mrs. White, "although, of
course, we had counted on Tavia's presence. She is so jolly that the boys
will be much disappointed."

"I'm just ashamed of her," went on Dorothy in a burst of indignation. "She
should have learned by this time to keep her word, or else send some
message."

"Yes, I am afraid Tavia does not care for the conventionalities of polite
society," remarked Mrs. White. "In fact, I almost suspect she enjoys
disregarding them. But never mind! we must not condemn her unheard."

CHAPTER II

WHAT HAPPENED TO TAVIA

It must not be understood that Nat was a very silly boy. Not at all. He
did like Tavia, but he liked his own sweet cousin Dorothy, and would have
been just as disappointed, if not more so, had it been Dorothy who had
missed her train and not Tavia.

But the fact that all seemed to need Tavia to finish up the holiday plans,
and that now she had not come put Nat in a very restless mood, and when
the dinner, which was served immediately upon the return from the depot,
was over, Nat decided he would find something to do that would occupy his
time until the eight o'clock train, when, of course, they would again go
to the station.

Electricity was this young man's "hobby," and he had already fitted up the
cellar with all sorts of wires and attachments for regulating the
household affairs, such as turning on the heat by touching a button in the
stable where the hired man, John, had his quarters, and lighting the gas
in the coal-cellar by touching a button at the cook's elbow; in fact, Nat
really did arrange a number of most convenient contrivances, but the
family, all except Joe and Roger, thought his talent misapplied. They
insisted h