"Gone with Mrs. Hoyt to the Englischer Garten. Jo isn't here either."
"I know that well enough. She is skating at another place with that horrid boy."
"What horrid boy?" Nan looked amazed.
"Some one she met on the ice last week one day when you weren't there. He is a student, and he came up and asked Jo to skate with him. You know how free and easy she is. He is a good skater, waltzes on the ice and does that sort of thing, so off Jo went before I could say a word. Ever since then he has been trying to get chances to meet her. He followed her home and found out where she lived. Jo is the most unconventional girl in the world, and she didn't hesitate to tell him her name, so he wrote to her and asked her to meet him on the ice the next day. We all went together, all but you, and in that crowd Mrs. Hoyt couldn't keep track of us all. Jo has skated with him every day since, but often they go to another skating pond. She has been answering his notes and all that. He speaks English and says he is the son of a countess."
"Dear me, I wonder if that is so, but, even if it is, that amounts to nothing. There are plenty of disreputable counts and countesses over here and we don't know a thing about him. It is too bad that my music lesson comes in the afternoon, or I would go oftener with you all. I really don't have time to go more than twice a week, and opera nights I can't go at all."
"Do you think we ought to tell Mrs. Hoyt?"
Nan considered the question for a moment. "Oh, I don't know," she replied, presently. "It seems mean to tattle—yet—I'll tell you, Mary Lee, we'll see if we can't get her to stop, and if she won't we'll think of what is best to do."
"She won't stop. She thinks it is the greatest piece of fun, and can't, or won't see that there is any harm in it."
"Why couldn't she be satisfied with the nice boys she already knows?"