"All!" exclaimed Rosalind in a shocked tone. "Why, Mrs. Witherbee!"
"Well, you know what I mean," declared Mrs. Witherbee. "Of course you wouldn’t marry them all. But it could be any one of the seventeen or eighteen. Now, couldn’t it, Rosalind?"
Rosalind sighed, not because she was either romantic or pensive, but out of sheer despair.
"Oh, you heart-breaker!" chided Mrs. Witherbee confidentially.
"I’m not!" declared Rosalind stoutly. "There isn’t a broken heart among them. Their hearts are all perfectly sound and serviceable. They’re not only air-cooled, but water-jacketed, and not one of them ever had a misfire on my account."
"Rosalind! What in the world are you talking about?"
"Oh, well, please let’s not talk about it any more. I can’t stop them from asking me, can I?"
"No, but— Why, some of us wonder if you ever will be married!"
"Oh, I suppose I’ll be married some day; most women are. Meantime, what’s the use of considering and plotting and planning, or even bothering about it? When a girl wants to get married she can do it—any time. There’s nothing mysterious or unprecedented about it. It’s been done several times, I believe."
"I’m not—not in the least. I’m merely sane. Listen, now! Whose voice is that? You seem to have callers."
"It sounds like Mr. Davidson," said Mrs. Witherbee, listening. "He’s one of our neighbors. Shall we go and see?"
They walked to the front of the house, where a group of persons stood in a circle around an elderly man who talked volubly.
"Come and listen to this," advised Mr. Witherbee, beckoning. "Davidson had a thief last night, too. Same one, probably. Miss Chalmers, let me present Mr. Davidson—one of our island neighbors."
Mr. Davidson bowed briefly, then resumed his recital in a voice that Rosalind remembered quite well.
"We thought he was all alone at first. He started up his launch, and then he had a breakdown. Thought I had him sure then. But, by jingo! Do you know there was another fellow lying out there in a rowboat? He was keeping watch, I suppose. The second chap climbed into the launch, and they managed to get things started again.
"Even then we’d have had ’em in a fair race. He cut loose his rowboat after a while, and we smashed into that; we didn’t stop to pick up the splinters. That delayed us a little, of course.