"
"Nor let us--for one while," Pauline remarked--"I'd a good deal rather
work with than against that young lady."
Hilary came down then, looking ready and eager for the outing. She had
been out in the trap with Pauline several times; once, even as far as
the manor to call upon Shirley.
"Why," she exclaimed, "you've brought the Folly! Tom, how ever did you
manage it?"
"Beg pardon, Miss?"
Hilary shrugged her shoulders, coming nearer for a closer inspection of
the big lumbering stage. It had been new, when the present proprietor
of the hotel, then a young man, now a middle-aged one, had come into
his inheritance. Fresh back from a winter in town, he had indulged
high hopes of booming his sleepy little village as a summer resort, and
had ordered the stage--since christened the Folly--for the convenience
and enjoyment of the guests--who had never come. A long idle lifetime
the Folly had passed in the hotel carriage-house; used so seldom, as to
make that using a village event, but never allowed to fall into
disrepair, through some fancy of its owner.
As Tom opened the door at the back now, handing his guests in with much
ceremony, Hilary laughed softly. "It doesn't seem quite--respectful to
actually sit down in the poor old thing.
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