The little captain thought she saw signs of relenting in David's face. "Do let me tell," she pleaded. "I really can't bear it, if you don't," she ended in characteristic Madge-fashion.
David smiled and nodded.
Without waiting to give him a chance to change his mind she ran into the house and up the front steps. The three girls and the motor launch boys had returned and were wondering what had become of her. Madge swept them all before her into the Preston library. Then, summoning her host and hostess, Miss Betsey and Miss Jenny Ann, Madge told David's story. Perhaps she made him a hero in explaining how he was willing to take his cousin's crime on his own shoulders, rather than have Miss Betsey and Mrs. Preston lose their property, but at least, after she had finished, there was no one present who did not have a feeling of admiration for David, who had tried to do his duty even at the expense of his good name.
CHAPTER XXIV
"GOOD LUCK TO THE BRIDE"
DO you think it is very funny, Tom?" inquired Phil. She and Madge, Lillian, Eleanor and the four motor launch boys were on the deck of the "Sea Gull." They were gliding down the Rappahannock toward the great Chesapeake Bay. Moving gracefully behind the motor boat was the familiar form of the "Merry Maid." A group of older people sat out on her deck, gazing along the sun-lit shores of the river. The cruise of the houseboat was almost over.
Tom Curtis hesitated at Phil's question. "I ought not to say it is funny," he returned, "but I really think it is."
"Don't any of you dare to let Miss Betsey know you think so," warned Madge.
Eleanor looked aggrieved. "I am sure I don't know what there is funny about it," she protested. "I think it is lovely. Only it wasn't nice in Miss Betsey not to let us be her bridesmaids." Eleanor gazed across the little space of water to where Mr. and Mrs. John Randolph sat together on the deck of the "Merry Maid" with the blind child, Alice.