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"Esther's here we're hunting for Libbie," whispered Betty. "She isn't in her room." "So that's it!" For some reason unknown to the girls Bob seemed to be vastly relieved. "I was just going after Mr. Littell," he added. "But Libbie is lost! Maybe she is sick," urged Betty. "She's all right," declared Bob confidently.
"I do want to see Martha Washington's things," she confided, as they went ashore. "Her ivory fan and her dishes and the lovely colonial mahogany furniture." "George Washington's swords for mine," announced Bobby inelegantly. "I've seen 'em every time I've been here, and I'd give anything to have one to hang in my room." "Bobby should have been a boy," remarked Mrs. Littell indulgently.
"And now I think I had better go to the station, after our Betty, don't you?" "Oh, Mother!" came in concert from the piano, where Bobby was rattling off a lively waltz. "We all want to go. Please? There's plenty of room in the car." Mrs. Littell looked undecided. "One of you may go with your mother," said Mr. Littell decisively. "I think it had better be Louise. Now, there is no use in arguing.
She had told him about Bob that morning, and he was interested at once when she narrated what the bride and groom had told her of old Lockwood Hale. "Why, I know where his shop is. Everybody in Washington does," said Mr. Littell when she had finished. "He has lots of rare books mixed in with worthless trash. Funny I didn't take in you meant that Hale when you spoke of him.
She saw this, at least, as soon as she saw anything; for Julian, like most of us when the occasion rises, developed a very pretty power of concealment. He had for a month been seeing Miss Littell every day before any of us knew that he went to see her at all. Certainly Anne, unsuspicious by nature, was unprepared for the revelation.
"Baby's better. She wasn't poisoned at all," Betty told them. "But those children are going to be awfully hungry before long if we have to stay here. Do you know we're snowbound, girls?" This last she confided to the three Littell girls. "Won't they dig us out?" asked the practical Louise. "What a lark!" exclaimed Bobby, clapping her hands. "Just think! Buried in the snow!
"Have to keep an eye on you," he said with mock seriousness, at which Betty made a little face. "You haven't much time to get ready," Mr. Gordon warned them. "The aunts will leave Wednesday and our train pulls out at ten twenty-six on Friday morning. Of course you will do your shopping in Washington and be guided by the advice of Mr. and Mrs. Littell.
"You're mother's only son, aren't you, dear?" "Well, my name is as near as I'll ever come to it," mourned Bobby. "However, I manage to have a pretty good time if I am only a girl." Mrs. Littell led them first to the tomb of Washington.
Betty thanked him warmly and he followed the girls to the door, repeating that he would be glad to tell them everything he knew. They were going to one of the large shops to do a few errands for Mrs. Littell, and since their visit to the bookstore had taken so long they agreed to separate and each do one or two commissions and then meet at the door within half an hour.
Littell had called up the Union Station and discovered that because of a freight wreck the Vermont express had been delayed and would not be in before nine o'clock that night. "So our Betty is probably having a comfortable dinner on the train," he announced. "Now just a minute, and I'll have the Willard for the other Betty.
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