They got in, Sally driving. They swept in silence past the lawns, and into the wide, white highway. A watering-cart had just passed, and the air was fresh and wet. The afternoon was one of exquisite beauty. The steamer from San Francisco was just in, and the road was filled with other motor-cars and smart traps. Sally and the doctor nodded and waved to a score of friends. "I am as sorry as you are," said the doctor, awkwardly, after the silence had grown very long. "Don't mention it," said Sally, her face flaming again. "That's my brother's idea of humor. I--I shall stay at the Bevises' overnight." "I--why, I said I would do that!" said Dr. Bates, hastily. "I just called in to the maid, when she telephoned Bevis, and said, 'Ask him if he can put me up overnight.' You see, I've got my things." "Well, then, I won't," said Sally. Her tone was cold, but a side glance at his serious face melted her a little. "This is ALL Ferdie!" she burst out angrily. "Too bad to make it so important," said the doctor, regretfully. "I don't see why you should stay at the Bevises'," said the girl, fretfully. "It looks very odd--when you had come to us. I--I am going to Glen Ellen early to-morrow, anyway. I would hate to have the Bevises suspect--" "Then I will go back with you," agreed the doctor, pleasantly. Sally frowned. She opened her lips, but shut them without speaking. She had turned the car into a wide gateway, and a moment later they stopped at a piazza full of young people. The noisy, joyous Bevis girls and boys swarmed rapturously about them. After an hour of laughter and shouting, Sally and the doctor rose to go, accompanied to the motor by all the young people. "Ah, you just got in, doctor?" said gentle Mrs. Bevis, with a glance at the suit-cases. Sally flushed, but the doctor serenely let the misunderstanding go. There was no good reason to give for the presence of two cases in the car. "You look quite like an elopement!" said Page Bevis with a joyous shout. "Put one of the cases in front, Bates, and rest your feet on it," suggested the older boy, Kenneth. As he spoke, he caught up Sally's case, and gave it a mighty swing from the tonneau to the front seat. In mid-flight, the suit-case opened. Jars and powders, slippers and beribboned apparel scattered in every direction. Small silver articles, undeniably feminine in nature, lay on the grass; a spangled scarf which they had all admired on Sally's slender shoulders had to be tenderly extricated from the brake. With shrieks of laughter, the Bevis family righted the case and repacked it. Sally was frozen with anger. "Mother SAID she knew you two would run off and get married quietly some day!" said pretty, audacious Mary Bevis. "Dearie!" protested her mother. "I only said--I only thought--I said I thought--Mary, that's very naughty of you! Sally, you know how innocently one surmises an engagement, or guesses at things!"