“We hired every room in the neighborhood to accommodate the people from the wedding.”

Laurel went back to Phil.

“Nothing tonight on account of a wedding.”

“Well, that’s that!” said Pilgrim thoughtfully. “But I guess there’ll be some other way. Come on, we’ll go and see about your car.

“Well, in the first place, let’s see whether the generator has come yet. If it hasn’t, we might hitch your car to mine and run it down to the city. But of course we’d have to consider that I’m pretty much of a stranger to you, and you might not feel you cared to take a long ride like that with me just coming nightfall!” He gave her a little grin.

“Nonsense!” said Laurel. “I certainly know enough about you to feel perfectly safe with you no matter how dark it is. But I am not going to allow you to take a long journey like that for me. Let’s go and see about that train. Don’t I hear it now?”

“Yes,” said Pilgrim. “We’ll drive over to the station and see for ourselves. You can’t tell whether Mark may forget to go over. No, there he is heading toward the station on a dead run. Yes, there! They’ve flung him a package. That ought to be it. We’ll drive over and see.”

Mark was undoing the package as they came into the garage, and he turned and grinned at them.

“They’ve sent the generator, all rightie!” he said. “And Ted and I are working overtime tonight. We’ll have her done as quick as she can be done. Maybe tonight if we don’t have too many interruptions.”

“Great work, Mark!” said Pilgrim. “You can count on me to bring you a pot of coffee and cinnamon buns if it keeps you late.”

“Great idea, Phil Pilgrim. I see you ain’t lost any of your big heart by gettin’ eddicated. I’ll vote for you every time.”

But Laurel had been doing some thinking while the two were talking, and now she stepped up to the mechanic.

“Did I understand you to say there was a possibility that my car might be finished tonight?”

The man eyed her sharply.

“Yes, ma’am, I said that. I think if we can get this generator in before dark, we might have her ready to travel by seven o’clock. Mind you, I ain’t promising, not till I see what shape she’s in when I get the generator in, but I think it might happen, if you don’t mind paying my helper for overtime.”

“Of course not,” said Laurel. “It’s important for me to get the car as soon as possible.”

“Okay,” said the mechanic, returning to his work. “Stick around, lady, I’ll do my best. Angels can’t do no more.”

She turned a quick glance toward Pilgrim but saw he had just vanished inside the room where the telephone was. She wondered whether he had heard what Mark had said. But when he was through with the telephone, she would try a couple of old friends and see if either of them would take her in, provided her car was not done in time to use that night.

Phil Pilgrim came out of the office smiling.

“Say,” he said with a happy grin, “want to do a little more scouting around for a stopping place? I had a hunch that I’d better find out for sure whether my man is coming on the midnight or later, and I find he came in on the five ten. Started from Chicago sooner than he expected, and he’s home now. I can see him if I drive to his house at once.