“You know Ivy?” Robin pricked up his ears. He had never heard Ivy so much as mention May Sutherland.
“Why, we began school together right here in this room. At least I had been going a couple of years when Ivy commenced. There were only six pupils. I attended this school until I was twelve. Then I went away to boarding school.”
“Were you two chummy at all?” Robin inquired.
May wrinkled her brows slightly.
“It seems to me we agreed to disagree on various occasions,” she replied. “I was a good deal of a spitfire in those days. If I remember correctly I used to flare up and then Ivy would sulk. What silly things girls do when they’re kids,” she laughed reminiscently. “I shouldn’t have known her. She’s awfully good looking, isn’t she? Perfect features and beautiful eyes. How has she escaped capture here in the Bear Paws where there are six men for every woman? Dad says no schoolteacher has ever taught more than a single term. They always get married. How has Ivy kept her freedom?”
“Hard to catch, I guess,” Robin made a noncommittal reply.
He did not say that he had tentatively captured Ivy. Here, to-night, for the first time in the six months they had been formally engaged he had a doubt of his capture being complete. And besides that doubt he did not want to talk about Ivy Mayne to this fair-haired girl who floated in his clasp light as a feather.
When that dance ended May left him to go straight to Ivy. Robin saw her shake hands and sit down beside Dan Mayne’s daughter and talk with a gracious smile. He didn’t stay to see the outcome of that. He was a little uneasy. He knew Ivy. She could be gracious when she chose, but she could also be very difficult with members of her own sex. Robin let his desire for a smoke take him outside. There, as he leaned against the building he overheard a snatch of conversation just around the corner. He knew one of the voices—Tex Matthews. The other was strange. Robin would have moved instantly, but the first sentence held him.
“Who was the good-lookin’ kid dancin’ with Sutherland’s daughter. I don’t mean young Stevens or the other one—the boy with the wavy hair?”
“Robin Tyler. You know—I told you.”