People for every meal of the day began to appear at the Motor Inn, for
it was surprising how many parties made a before-breakfast start to
avoid the heat of the day on a long trip, and turned up at the Inn about
eight or nine o'clock demanding coffee and an omelette. Then one or two
Rosemont people came to ask if friends of theirs might be accommodated
with rooms and board for a week or two, and in this way the old house by
the road grew rapidly to be more like the inn its sign called it than
the tea room it was intended to be. Servants were added, another veranda
was built on, and it looked as if Miss Foster would not teach dancing
when winter came again but would have to devote herself to the
management of the village hotel which the town had always needed.
It was while the members of the U.S.C. were eating ices and cakes there
late one afternoon when they had walked to the station with the
departing Watkinses that the Ethels had one of the ideas that so often
struck them at almost the same moment. It came as they watched a motor
party go off, supplying themselves with a box of small cakes for the
children after trying to buy from Miss Foster the jar of wild iris that
stood in state on the table in the hall. It was not fresh enough to
travel they had decided when their hostess had offered to give it to
them and they all had examined the purple heads that showed themselves
to be past their prime when they were brought out into the light from
the semi-darkness of the hall.
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