Miss Jenny Ann stared thoughtfully after the giant figure as Captain Jules left the houseboat and strode up the shore in search of a small skiff to take him home.
“You girls have made an unusual friend,” she said slowly to Madge. “In many ways Captain Jules is rough. He may be uneducated in the wisdom of schools and books, but he is a great man with a great heart.”
Before Madge went to bed that night she wrote Tom Curtis. She told him how sorry they all were that he could not come at once to Cape May. She also described the day’s adventures. She made as light of their accident as possible, but she ended her letter by asking Tom if he would not send her a book about pearl fishing.
CHAPTER X
THE GOODY-GOODY YOUNG MAN
“Philip Holt has come, Madge,” announced Phyllis Alden a few days later. “He is staying at one of the hotels until Mrs. Curtis and Tom arrive to open their cottage. He has already been calling on a number of Mrs. Curtis’s friends here. Now he has condescended to come to see us. Miss Jenny Ann says we must invite him to luncheon; so close that book, if you please, and come help us to entertain him. I am sure you will be so pleased to see him.”
Madge frowned, but closed her book obediently. “What a bore, Phil! I was just reading this fascinating book on pearl-fishing. A few valuable pearls have been found in these waters. There was one which was sold to a princess for twenty-five hundred dollars. Who knows but the ‘Merry Maid’ may even now be reposing on a bank of pearls! Dear me, here is that tiresome Mr. Holt! Of course, we must be nice with him on Mrs. Curtis’s account. I hope she and Tom will soon come along. Let us take Mr. Holt with us to the golf club this afternoon. We promised Ethel Swann to come and she won’t mind our bringing him.”
The girls were not altogether surprised that the young people whom they had lately met at Cape May were divided into two sets. The one had taken the girls under their protection and seemed to like them immensely. The other, headed by Mabel Farrar and Roy Dennis, treated them with cool contempt. But the girls felt able to take care of themselves. Not one of them even inquired what story Mr. Dennis and Miss Farrar had told about their memorable meeting on the water.