"Oh, Gracy, don't be foolish," said Betty, recovering her usual composure. "If you don't look out _I'll_ begin to get personal. You needn't think you are the only one that has eyes."
"Oh, well," said, Grace, flushing in her turn. "If you are going to begin that---- Oh, Betty, just smell the bacon! Please hand me that shoe, quick!"
"Oh!" cried Betty, and drew back as a small stone flung by some one below hurtled through the open window and fell to the floor at her feet. "Look! It has something tied to it," she cried, and, stooping, picked it up.
"Bring it here," called Grace excitedly. "Oh, this is romantic! Betty, let me see it, quick!"
"Wait a minute, I haven't seen it myself yet," said Betty, as she unfolded the tiny slip of paper attached to the stone. "Well, of all the----"
Grace looked over her shoulder and this is what the two girls read:
"When are you coming out? The water's fine."
With one accord they rushed to the window through which the message had come and leaned far out. But look as they might in every direction, there was no sight nor sound of human beings. The grounds about the house and even the woods seemed deserted.
The girls drew back in, looked at each other in perplexity, then their gaze instinctively traveled to the note still held in Betty's hand.
"Well," Grace announced, "it seems that we have here a key to some mystery----"
"Mystery nothing!" Betty interrupted disrespectfully. "We know who wrote this--there is no mistaking Roy's scrawl. The senders have decamped--that's all."
"Speak of princes----" said Grace, as they went out arm in arm.
"And they are sure to turn up," Betty finished merrily.
Mollie's breakfast was good. And the young folks ate with the healthy appetites of youth. Mrs. Irving left the table early to get herself ready to go over to the summer colony where she had promised to spend the day with friends who were summering there. The girls had scarcely finished their breakfast when the boys broke in upon them.
"You girls eat too much," Frank complained, when the first greetings were over. "Now, if you only had our dainty little appetites----"
"The best way to treat some people," put in Mollie significantly, "is to pay no attention to them or their remarks."