And if there weren’t, she wouldn’t ever marry at all.

Having settled that she laid aside the thought of Peter as an unpleasant topic and began to consider where and what they should do in the immediate future.

Jerry, of course, must go back to college in the fall. It wouldn’t do to have him fall behind; there would be a terrible family row. But, of course, by that time they would be at home again, and she could manage all right as soon as her majority was once established and she had made them all understand that she was mistress of the family. She wouldn’t stand for having them interfere, even with advice. She might make some mistakes, of course, but that was up to her.

In the backseat Hazel was asleep with her head back on the cushions, with Karen’s head in her lap. Karen’s knees were curled up. And in the middle seats Heather and Tryon, backs hunched against the locked doors, heads against the windows, were asleep. By Jennifer’s side Jeremy, with Robin soundly sleeping in his arms, had his head back, his eyes closed as if he were dead to the world. But Jeremy wasn’t asleep now. The change to another seat had only sharpened his senses.

This was Jeremy’s hour to think.

All this afternoon, ever since Jennifer had told him what the relatives were planning, he had done a lot of practical thinking about ways and means for their immediate safety and exit, and if his dead father could have been there and talked with him he would have been sure to commend him for his sensible plans. But now the family was well on its way, and the immediate hurry over, Jeremy had opportunity to do some thinking for himself. How was all this going to affect him personally?

When the accident had first happened he had been aware only of horror and loss. Now as he looked through the night at his own future and saw it emerge dimly from a fog of uncertainty, a number of things stood out plainly that he had not even envisioned dimly at first.

There was the fact that he was the oldest son. Jennifer was older, of course, and her majority would set them free probably, from the interference of the relatives, to make their own plans. But he was the oldest son. And while he might not so soon be counted as a legal dependent for the rest, still there were things a son could do, should do, for his orphaned brothers and sisters, that a girl, no matter how wise and willing she might be, couldn’t be expected to do, things a girl would not even realize were necessary. Therefore it was up to him to stick around and do them. He had done quite a number of them that afternoon, thought he did not realize that they had been unusual. He had thought of things that a man would think of and a girl might not. He had looked after things his father always did. As a little boy, he had often been with him and questioned him about what he was doing and why. These things had naturally come to his mind with the sudden pressure for maturity on his part. It was as if a vacancy had been there, his father’s vacancy, and there wasn’t even a servant to step in and take it, so he had taken it. The functions were, most of them, obvious. He had somehow known what he ought to pack for himself and Tryon, just how to arrange for extra baggage, how to proceed stealthily about filling and preparing the car, how to prepare for contingencies, how to study the map and hunt out back roads, little traveled; where to plan to stop for necessities.

But now that they were away and the route was all planned out, he began to see vistas opening ahead. They would go on now and somehow get through the three months before Jennifer was of age, and they would finally emerge from oblivion and come back to their home and begin life again, of course. But Jeremy saw that even then his work would not be done. He was the man of the family, even if Jennifer was the one who would come of age first, and he must take his part and protect her as well as the younger children. He couldn’t go back to his college! So that was the thing he had been feeling, unidentified, in the back of his mind all day, was it?

Well, it was all right. That was to be expected.