“Nothing of the sort, sir!” interrupted Diamond, flushing hotly. “I am not chasing every pretty girl I see!”
“No? Well, you are a rare bird among the rising generation.”
“I know all about the little girl at Bar Harbor, but she would never know anything about your little flirtations over here.”
“That makes no difference to me,” came haughtily from Jack’s lips. “I should know about it, and my sense of honor——”
“Perhaps so, but I am rather proud of my Southern notions, Mr. Browning. That is all, sir.”
Then, apparently almost at a white heat, Diamond left the big fellow, who sat down wearily on an easy-chair, murmuring to himself:
“Queer chap, that. He drags honor into everything. He’ll not even flirt a little with a pretty girl, for he is in love with a little Boston maiden, Paula Benjamin, who is at Bar Harbor. And I don’t believe there is anything serious between them, either, for I am sure he has not proposed to her. All the same, just as long as he is in love with her, he’ll not look at another girl. I wonder if all Virginians are that way. They can’t be.”
Diamond hurried out of the room. In various parts of the house he looked for Hattie Hazle.
“If I find her,” he thought, “I will ask her where Frank has gone.”
At last, Jack came hurrying back to the parlor, a troubled look on his face. He saw Hodge, and quickly drew him aside.
“Look here, Bart,” he said, speaking in a low tone and uttering the words swiftly, “something is up.”
“I’ll tell you. A while ago Miss Hazle came into this room in a hurry, just as Hans was trying to tell that story. I saw her look around till her eyes fell on Frank, then she hurried to him. No one noticed her but Merry and myself. She began speaking to him in a low tone, and I caught a few of her words.”
“She was urging him to do something. At first he refused, politely, but she insisted, and, after a little, he gave in. I heard him ask, ‘Where is he?’ Then she said something I did not catch, and Frank said, ‘All right, I’ll see him.’ Directly he left this room, and I do not know where he went.”
“Something is up,” repeated the Virginian. “I feel it—I know it!”
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t see that you heard anything to make you think so.”
“Who did Merry go to see? Everyone of our party was here in this room.”