As the party was about to separate for luncheon two women appeared in a nearby doorway and stood looking up and down the piazza.
"Oh, there are dear Marian and her mother!" cried Maud, hurrying over to greet her friends.
"Dear Mrs. De Lancey Smythe," exclaimed Maud, with a defiant look toward her father, "I do so want you to go out with us in our launch this afternoon. Won't you let me introduce some new friends to you, who are going to sail with us?"
Mr. Warren turned red. A look of disappointment, verging on anger crept into his good-natured brown eyes as his daughter deliberately defied him.
The De Lancey Smythes glanced toward the Stuart party, with bored indifference.
Mrs. De Lancey Smythe made some low-voiced remark to Maud who nodded her head slightly. Whereupon mother and daughter moved toward Miss Stuart with an air of haughty condescension.
Mrs. De Lancey Smythe might have been anywhere from thirty-five to forty-five. She was tall, well-proportioned and a decided brunette. At a glance one would have decided her to be very handsome, but close observers would have noted a hard expression about the eyes and mouth that completely destroyed the effect of beauty. As for her daughter, Marian, she was a small, slender insignificant young woman who seemed entirely overshadowed by her mother's personality.
Both mother and daughter were dressed perhaps a shade too elaborately for good taste, and there was something about them that immediately aroused a sense of vague disapproval in the minds of the Stuart party.
"Maud is always so thoughtful of her friends," murmured Mrs. De Lancey Smythe, turning to Miss Sallie with well simulated appreciation. "She knows how fond we are of sailing."
Miss Sallie looked sharply at the speaker. The De Lancey Smythes were evidently unaware of Mr. Warren's animosity toward them. She was about to frame some polite excuse for not going on the launch, hoping to thus nip in the bud the proposed sail, when suddenly meeting Mr. Warren's eyes, she saw an expression of entreaty in them that made her hesitate.
"I hope you and your 'Automobile Girls' will not disappoint me," he said pleadingly.
"Thank you," responded Miss Stuart. "We shall be pleased to go."