Free The Strange Proposal by Grace Livingston Hill

our garage when the chauffeur was out for the day, and he never knew it.”
    “Did you really?” whispered Mary Elizabeth, like a fellow conspirator. “How perfectly spiffy! Didn’t he ever find it out?”
    “Not yet. It was last week, and he was too busy doing errands before the wedding to notice. He will, though. He has eyes like a ferret’s.”
    “Well, he certainly won’t know who did it, will he? You were careful to wipe off the fingerprints I suppose?”
    Sam laughed. He exploded at first as if it came unexpectedly, and then he looked at her a minute and bent double laughing.
    “Okay!” he said when he’d recovered. “I’ll go with you. I wasn’t going to, but you’ve got a sense of humor. So many relatives haven’t. Jeff’s the only other one that has, and now he’s gone.”
    “Oh, no, he’s not gone. He’ll be back sound as a nut pretty soon, and you’ll like your new sister Camilla, too. She’s a peach!”
    “Oh, she’s awright I guess,” said Sam with a grimace. “But I don’t see Jeff’s getting married. Why couldn’t he have stayed at home?”
    “Well, it is strange, isn’t it?” said Mary Elizabeth. “However, I guess we can’t do anything about that now. Now, partner, how much luggage have you got? Is it all packed? When do we get started? Or do we have to wait for the rest of the crowd? Because you know, we might have some of our plans upset if we did.”
    “That’s right,” said Sam with another frown.
    “Had your breakfast?” asked Mary Elizabeth.
    “Sure thing!” said Sam contemptuously. “Had my breakfast an hour ago and been down to the wharf watching the boats. You didn’t think I was goin’ ta stick around till the family got up and then go in the dining room and have ’em all telling me what I was to eat, did you? It makes me sick the way they treat me, just like a baby.”
    “Well, that is hard lines, isn’t it? Then suppose you hustle up and get your bags and bring them down to that side door over there, and I’ll go and tell your mother we’re starting ahead because I have a place I want to stop a few minutes on the way. There’s a place I saw on the way down where they have the darlingest wire-haired terriers for sale, puppies, the cutest ever. Like wire-haired terriers?”
    “Betcher life I do,” said Sam, now wholly won over, his eyes shining with a great relief. “Gee, we’re gonta have fun, aren’t we?”
    “Sure thing!” said Mary Elizabeth boyishly, giving him a grin that endeared him to her, even as many an older youth had been endeared in the past.
    So Mary Elizabeth ordered the porter to bring down her luggage and went on her way to the dining room to let the uncles and aunts—principally the aunts—know that she was starting.
    “But we wanted you to go along with us,” said Aunt Fannie, buttering and syruping her waffles.
    “Sorry, Aunt Fan,” said Mary Elizabeth sweetly. “I’ve promised to get home as soon as possible. I’m expecting some mail that is very important. And we couldn’t see each other very much, anyway, on the road. You know it’s terribly hard to follow a car and try to keep together in traffic.”
    “You’ll drive carefully, won’t you, Betty dear?” said Aunt Clarice.
    “Oh, I’m the world’s best, Aunt Clarrie, don’t you know that?” the girl said, smiling.
    “Well, be sure to see that Sam washes his hands and combs his hair before he leaves. I declare that child can acquire more dirt in a given time than any other of the human species. Where he’s been this morning, I can’t think! I went in to wake him up and found him gone. I don’t know what he’s going to grow up to be! A tramp, I’m afraid. Well, I hope you won’t regret your bargain taking him along, but it’s real charity, he makes us all so nervous. He gets restless you know, wants to get out and chase butterflies and dig up plants. Since he went on that camping trip in the winter, he’s simply impossible! You don’t know