Part 2 (1/2)
”Why, Heavy asked her to go; didn't she?” cried Ruth.
”Well, that was last Winter. I didn't press her,” admitted the stout girl.
”But she's your roommate, like Belle and Lluella,” said Ruth, in some heat. ”Of course you've got to ask her.”
”Don't you do it. She's a spoil-sport,” declared Mercy Curtis, in her sharp way. ”The Fox will keep us all in hot water.”
”Do be still, Mercy!” cried Ruth. ”This is Heavy's own affair. And Mary c.o.x has been her roommate ever since she's been at Briarwood.”
”I don't know that Belle and Lluella can go with us,” said the stout girl, slowly. ”The fright they got up in the woods last Winter scared their mothers. I guess they think I'm too reckless. Sort of wild, you know,” and the stout girl's smile broadened.
”But you intended inviting Mary c.o.x?” demanded Ruth, steadily.
”Yes. I said something about it to her. But she wouldn't give me a decided answer then.”
”Ask her again.”
”Don't you do it!” exclaimed Mercy, sharply.
”I mean it, Jennie,” Ruth said.
”I can't please both of you,” said the good-natured stout girl.
”Please me. Mercy doesn't mean what she says. If Mary c.o.x thinks that I am opposed to your having her at Lighthouse Point, I shall be offended if you do not immediately insist upon her being one of the party.”
”And that'll suit The Fox right down to the ground,” exclaimed Mercy.
”That is what she was fis.h.i.+ng for when she got at Helen to-night.”
”Did _I_ say she said anything about Lighthouse Point?” quickly responded Helen.
”You didn't have to,” rejoined Mercy, sharply. ”We knew.”
”At least,” Ruth said to Heavy, quietly, yet with decision, ”you will ask your old friend to go?”
”Why--if you don't mind.”
”There seems to have been some truth in Mary's supposition, then,”
Ruth said, sadly. ”She thinks I intended to keep her out of a good time. I never thought of such a thing. If Mary c.o.x does not accept your invitation, Heavy, I shall be greatly disappointed. Indeed, I shall be tempted to decline to go to the sh.o.r.e with you. Now, remember that, Jennie Stone.”
”Oh, shucks! you're making too much fuss about it,” said the stout girl, rising lazily, and speaking in her usual drawling manner. ”Of course I'll have her--if she'll go. Father's bungalow is big enough, goodness knows. And we'll have lots of fun there.”
She went her leisurely way to the door. Had she been brisker of movement, when she turned the k.n.o.b she would have found Mary c.o.x with her ear at the keyhole, drinking in all that had been said in the room of the triumvirate. But The Fox was as swift of foot as she was shrewd and sly of mind. She was out of sight and hearing when Jennie Stone came out into the corridor.
CHAPTER III
ON LAKE OSAGO
The final day of the school year was always a gala occasion at Briarwood Hall. Although Ruth Fielding and her chum, Helen Cameron, had finished only their first year, they both had important places in the exercises of graduation. Ruth sang in the special chorus, while Helen played the violin in the school orchestra. Twenty-four girls were in the graduating cla.s.s. Briarwood Hall prepared for Wellesley, or any of the other female colleges, and when Mrs. Grace Tellingham, the preceptress, graduated a girl with a certificate it meant that the young lady was well grounded in all the branches that Briarwood taught.
The campus was crowded with friends of the graduating cla.s.s, and of the Seniors in particular. It was a very gay scene, for the June day was perfect and the company were brightly dressed. The girls, however, including the graduating cla.s.s, were dressed in white only. Mrs.
Tellingham had established that custom some years before, and the different cla.s.ses were distinguished only by the color of their ribbons.