"What _do_ you suppose this means?" she said as she came up to where the two girls were sitting in big chairs waiting for her. "It says, ’Phone Cambridge 2811 at once.’ Somebody telephoned five minutes ago, the clerk said, and was very anxious to reach me. Now whatever can have happened? Hal didn’t know we were coming back here, so it couldn’t be he and we don’t know another soul. However," she added briskly, "I needn’t be so silly as to stand here wondering when I might go to the ’phone and find out all about it. You stay right here, girlies, and I’ll ’phone from the booth over there and we’ll solve the mystery." Mary Jane and Alice could hardly wait, they were so curious and impatient to find out what had happened. They could see Mrs. Merrill talking but she was too far away for them to make out whether she was pleased or distressed by the conversation. In two or three minutes though, she left the booth and came towards them and the girls could tell by the way she was smiling that something very nice and agreeable had happened. "We’re to be up at the station in thirty minutes," she announced, "the station where we came in this morning, and Uncle Hal will meet us and take us out to see Wellesley—what do you think of that?" "But, Mother," exclaimed Alice, "I thought he had a lot of work to do?" "He still has," said Mrs. Merrill, "but just after we left him he got a message from one of his friends at Wellesley telling him that the Tree Day dance was to be given this afternoon at the Garden Party, and that when it was first shown it was so very wonderful, we surely must see it." "And so he told her we were here?" said Alice. "He didn’t have to, she already knew that," said Mrs. Merrill, "and her invitation included us. So just on a chance that we might come to the hotel, he called up and left the message for us. We won’t have time to change or anything, but I guess we look all right in traveling clothes. Let’s hurry now, so’s not to miss the train." "But where’s lunch?" asked Mary Jane in dismay, "I am hungry, truly I am." "Of course you are, dear," said Mrs. Merrill reassuringly, "and we’ll get a bite. Hal said there was a nice little place right on the way to the station and if we go quickly, we’ll have time for a sandwich and a glass of milk. Then if that isn’t enough, perhaps we can get something later. In fact," and she smiled mysteriously, "I think I wouldn’t worry a bit about starving if I were you." After that Mary Jane didn’t bother about being hungry—she was too busy wondering what was going to happen. They got a sandwich, a luscious big chicken sandwich with white meat sticking out all around the edges, and a glass of milk, a great big glass of milk, and that was all there was time for. Even so they barely got down the stairs in time for their train.