“They aren’t such ‘fine little chaps’ after all,” I couldn’t resist commenting. “Familiarity breeds contempt, you see. I am sorry Diogenes had so much of their society. He’ll be unendurable tomorrow. Well, you had some day!”
“So did the Polydores. Demetrius and Diogenes fell in the fire twice. Emerald threw a finger out of joint, but Ptolemy quickly jerked it into place. Pythagoras was kicked off the raft twice, following a mutiny. Demetrius threw a lighted match into the vines and set fire to the house. They said it was a ‘beaut of a day’, though, and urged us to come tomorrow and repeat the program. By the way, they went 171 across the lake on their raft yesterday and bought a tent of some campers. They have pitched it in the woods beyond the house.”
When I went upstairs Silvia met me disconsolately.
“He didn’t propose,” she said disappointedly. “She wouldn’t let him.”
“Did you wake her up to find out?” I asked.
“She hadn’t gone to bed and she wasn’t sleepy. She was trimming a hat.”
“Why wouldn’t she let him propose, if she cares for him?” I asked perplexedly.
“Well, you see,” explained Silvia, “that when a girl––a coquette girl like Beth––is as sure of a man as she is of Rob, she gets a touch of contrariness or offishness or something. She said it would have been too prosaic and cut and dried if they had gone away for a day in the woods and come back engaged. She wants the unexpected.”
“Do you think she loves him?” I asked interestedly.