“Well, it’s true,” said careless Bess. “There’s that Linda Riggs going down with Gracie Mason to the dock. I bet Walter is coming in his Bargain Rush for Grace, and Linda will get invited. I’d just love to have a motor boat, Nan, just to get ahead of Linda. She can’t have one, I heard Cora say, because her father is afraid of them.”
“None of the girls own motor boats,” Nan said, calmly. “The canoe is all right.”
They were in the canoe and had put up the little leg-o’-mutton sail, before Walter Mason’s Bargain Rush came out around Lighthouse Point, from the inlet, and chugged over to the school dock where Walter’s sister was waiting.
“Walter is just devoted to Grace,” Nan said. “I think he is a dreadfully nice boy.”
“Better keep your opinion to yourself,” laughed Bess. “Linda thinks she about owns him. You see, he’s the only boy available about the school and Linda has always been used to having the best of everything.”
“So have you,” laughed Nan, roguishly.
“But not in boys!” cried Bess. “Billy is enough. If they are all like that brother of mine——”
“You know Walter isn’t,” said Nan.
“Goodness! No! Walter Mason is as meek as Moses! As meek as his own sister. And I think Gracie is the most milk-and-watery girl I ever saw.”
“She’s timid, I know,” began Nan, but her chum interrupted quickly: