“Come on!  Come on!” she called as she stopped at the curb and, tooted the horn.  “Hurry!  I want to overtake Walter.  He and Jack have just gone out!”

“Oh, of course, you want to overtake Walter,” answered Isabel, with the emphasis on “Walter.”

“Well, never mind about that, but do come,” urged Cora.  “What do you think of my car?” she asked as the girls hastened to her.  “Isn’t it a beauty?”

She handled the machine with considerable skill, for she had had some practice on Jack’s car.

“Think of it!” exclaimed Elizabeth.  “Why, it’s simply beyond thoughts; it’s—­overwhelming!”

“A perfect dream,” agreed Belle.  “Aren’t you the lucky girl, though!”

“Guess I am,” admitted Cora.  “See, I can start it without cranking”; and to prove it, when the engine was quiet, she threw forward the spark lever, shifted the gasolene one a trifle, and the motor began to throb and hum rapidly.

“Good!” cried Isabel.

“Paul told me about it,” went on Cora.  “The Paul, you know.  He said when a charge of gas is in one of the cylinders all you have to do is to send a spark to the cylinder, and—­”

“It didn’t take you long to learn,” complimented Bess, while Isabel said: 

“Paul—­er—­is he—­”

“Yes, he is,” admitted Cora with a laugh.  “The youth of the garage.”

“Well, I don’t remember a thing he said,” confessed Elizabeth; “but Paul—­who could forget Paul?  Didn’t he have nice teeth?”

“And so polite,” added Belle.

“Wasn’t he just splendid?” concluded Cora.  “And such a number of things that he told me.  But come on, get in,” and she slowed down the motor somewhat, while, removing a pair of buckskin gloves from her long, tapering hands, she produced a small, dainty handkerchief and rubbed a spot of black grease from her aristocratic nose.

“Got that when I was oiling the rear wheels,” she explained.

The twins entered the tonneau, neither of them caring to risk riding on the front seat just yet.

Cora speeded the motor up a bit, glanced behind to see that the tonneau door was securely fastened, and then pulled the speed lever and threw in the clutch.  The car started forward as smoothly as if Paul himself were at the wheel.

Elizabeth’s hand flew to her hat, which tilted backward in the wind.  They had not yet secured their motor “togs,” and regulation hats were so difficult to manage.

“Oh, isn’t this glorious!” cried Isabel.

“Every one is looking at us,” announced Elizabeth.

“Now I wonder which road Jack and Walter took?” said Cora as she swung the car around a curve in good style.  “I heard Jack say he was going for some fishing-tackle.”

“Perhaps they went to Arden,” ventured Isabel.

“Maybe.  Well, we’ll take a nice little spin down the turnpike,” decided Cora as she threw in the high gear, the cogs grinding on each other rather alarmingly.