Part 19 (1/2)

You know it has been closed all winter.”

”Indeed, I'm not going anywhere.” d.i.c.k felt greatly relieved, for he believed that Ralph was telling him the truth. He knew that his college pal was impulsive and often did things in more of a headlong manner than he would had he given the matter thought. ”Of course he admires my Bobs; no one could help that, but I'm glad that he doesn't really love her,”

d.i.c.k was thinking. ”He's had sorrow enough as it is.” Aloud he asked, ”Who are you going to ask?”

”Well, I did invite all four of the Vandergrift girls, but Bobs is the only one who has accepted. The oldest and youngest sisters are free but a few hours each day; the rest of their time they devote to Settlement work and they feel that they are especially needed now that it is vacation in the schools. Gwendolyn, however, may come, as of course I have invited your sister Phyllis and her guests.”

d.i.c.k looked at Ralph with the light of a new inspiration in his eyes. ”I say, wouldn't it be great if you could care for my sister Phyl? Then you would be my brother in very truth.”

Ralph laughed. ”d.i.c.ky-boy,” he said, ”are you turning matchmaker? It's too late for that, old man. Bobs tells me that Phyllis is engaged to a fine chap from up Boston way. His name is Arden Wentworth.”

”Gee, that's great news! Arden is a chap after my own heart, but I didn't think that he ever could win Phyl. She must have changed a lot this last year.”

”Why, how's that?” Ralph looked around inquiringly. ”His father has piled up a few millions. That ought to please any girl.”

”That's just where the shoe pinches, so to speak,” was the reply. ”Arden, being a red-blooded young American, refused to just spend his father's money and so he put on overalls and began at the bottom in one of his dad's factories. He said he wanted to prove to himself, even if the world didn't care, that he had brains enough to make good without help. Phyl wouldn't speak to him after that, hoping that, for her sake, he would give it up; but he didn't, and so I thought it was all off between them.”

”Well, something must have happened, for Bobs tells me that they are really engaged, and so, of course I have also invited Arden. By the way, you know Gwendolyn Vandergrift. What kind of a chap ought I to ask for her? Harry Birch is in town. I thought she might like him.” And so the lads talked over the plans for the coming house party, and so successfully did Ralph play his part that his pal did not for one moment suspect that his friend was secretly wis.h.i.+ng that he might have sailed away in d.i.c.k's place on the boat which, that noon, had left for distant sh.o.r.es.

But night is darkest before the dawn.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE HOUSE PARTY

Ralph and d.i.c.k were out on the wide velvety lawn which surrounded the handsome rambling summer home of the Caldwaller-Corys.

The gay awnings, palms and boxes of flowers gave the house a festive appearance, while the many colored lanterns strung about the garden suggested that some merriment was planned for the evening.

Mrs. Caldwaller-Cory, who seemed very young to be the mother of a junior member of an ancient law firm, emerged from the house closely followed by Roberta Vandergrift.

Bobs, in an attractive summer dress and wide flower-wreathed hat, looked very different from the girl who, while on the East Side, dressed in a simple dark tailor-made suit and a neat, narrow-brimmed hat.

”Aren't your guests late, my son?” the hostess inquired. Ralph looked at his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes.

”They certainly are,” he replied, ”late by a full hour now, and I am almost inclined to think that they had a breakdown. They were coming in Jack Beardsley's tallyho, and he said he would time the drive from New York so that they would reach us promptly at two-thirty, and now it is nearing four.”

Just at that moment a butler crossed the lawn and, beckoning Ralph to one side, told him that someone awaited him at the telephone. Excusing himself, the lad fairly ran indoors. As he had expected, it was the voice of his friend, Jack Beardsley, that greeted him. ”I say, Ralph, are you alone so that no one will get wise to what I am going to say?”

”Yes,” was the reply.

”We don't want to worry her sister needlessly. There really is no cause for that, but we've been delayed at the Orange Hills Inn because Gwendolyn Vandergrift, who isn't as strong as she thought, has found riding in the tallyho too hard. She's got grit, that girl has! Never complained, but kept up as long as she could that she need not trouble anyone until she just keeled over and fainted. She's better now, and Phyllis thought that if you would come over after her with that little runabout of yours, made comfortable with blankets and pillows, it wouldn't be as hard for Miss Vandergrift as this old tallyho of mine.

Mrs. Buscom, the innkeeper's wife, will look out for her, and so, if you are coming, we'll start along, as I want to make the steep grade with this lumbering vehicle of mine before dark.”

”Sure thing, I'll get there all right. I'll take a short cut through the hills, so you won't pa.s.s me, but don't be alarmed. I'll probably get back here in The Whizz as soon as you do in the tallyho, so I won't say anything to her sister, Roberta, as yet. So long.”

Again Ralph was acting on impulse. His first desire had been to take Bobs with him, but if he did there would not be room to make the invalid sister comfortable on the return trip, and, moreover, it wouldn't be fair to d.i.c.k.

His dad wouldn't arrive with the big car until five-thirty, and so The Whizz would have to do. Sending word out to the group on the lawn that the tallyho had been delayed but would soon arrive, Ralph donned his leather coat, cap and goggles and made his way out through a back entrance and down to the garage. Soon thereafter he was speeding over a country road which led among the hills and was a short cut of many miles to the Inn. He broke the speed limit whenever the dirt road was smooth enough to permit him to do so, but, although he frightened many a flock of birds from the hedges, no one arose from the wayside tangle to bid him go more slowly.