“Never mind,” laughed the captain. “It wasn’t really any trouble. And I’m glad it’s arranged. Now all you have to do is to enjoy yourselves.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Ruth and Lily. Their hands were filled with letters, and their eyes sparkled with pleasure.
“Did I get any?” cried Alice, jumping up at their entrance and rushing towards them.
“Everybody got some,” answered Ruth. “Even Marj, who pretended nobody knew her address!”
“I can’t imagine who--” she began, as Lily tossed the letter into her hands. Then, upon recognizing John Hadley’s handwriting, she became silent. But how he had found out the address was a mystery to her, and she was too shy to ask questions and run the risk of being teased.
“You got lots of mail, didn’t you, Miss Phillips?” observed Ruth.
The captain looked up smiling. “Yes, I received a lovely letter from the people who are responsible for this trip,” she replied.
“People!” echoed Lily. “I thought it was a man!”
“It is--but he happens to have a wife. It is she who wrote to me.”
“Curses!” cried Ruth, melodramatically. “And here I’ve been setting my cap for our rich friend--thinking all the time that he surely was a bachelor.”
“Well, I’m afraid you’ll get left then,” laughed Miss Phillips. “For he has a daughter about your age.”
“A daughter!” repeated Marjorie. “Do we know her?”
“Y-e-s,--I believe you have all met her.”
Lily and Marjorie both grew tremendously excited. “A member of Pansy troop?” asked the latter.
“That would be telling!” This last was uttered mysteriously; and the girls knew from their captain’s manner that she would give them no further information.
When the scouts appeared in the dining room, all in uniform, they created quite a sensation among the other guests at the inn. The people looked up pleasantly as they passed, and one woman even came over to the captain to request a demonstration of scouting at the local church, an invitation which Miss Phillips was forced to decline on account of lack of time.
All this while Ruth was scheming how to get away from the others to send her telegram to Harold. She regretted now that she had not seized the opportunity when she was with Lily; it would have been easier than after supper with all the others around.