One bright summer afternoon Madge returned alone from a long motor ride with Mrs. Curtis and Tom. She found the houseboat entirely deserted and remembered that the girls and Miss Jenny Ann had had an engagement to go sailing. She curled up on the big steamer chair and gave herself over to dreams.
A small boat, pulled by a pair of strong arms, came along close to the deck of the “Merry Maid.” Madge looked up to see Captain Jules’s faithful face beaming at her.
“All alone?” he called out cheerfully. “Come for a row with me. I’ll get you back before tea.”
Madge wanted to refuse, but she hardly knew how, so she slipped into the prow of the skiff and sat there idly facing him.
Captain Jules frowned at the girl’s pale face, which looked even paler under the loose twists of her soft auburn hair. Madge looked older and more womanly than she had the day the captain first saw her. There was a deeper meaning to the upper curves of her full, red lips and a gentler sweep to the downward droop of her heavy, black lashes. She was fulfilling the promise of the great beauty that was to be hers. It was easy to see that she had the charm that would make her life full of interest.
Still Captain Jules frowned as though the picture of Madge and her future did not please him.
“How much longer are you going to stay at Cape May, Miss Morton?” he inquired.
Madge smiled at him. “I don’t know anything about ‘Miss Morton’s’ plans, but Madge expects to be here for about two weeks more.”
Recently the captain had been calling the houseboat girls by their first names, as he was with them so constantly in their trouble. But he had now decided that he must return to the formality of the beginning of their acquaintance. It was best to do so.
“And afterward?” the old sailor questioned, pretending that he was really not greatly interested in Madge’s reply.