“Well, that’s the talk at school. They say he brags about it to his friends. He claims he can get any girl stuck on him if he tries.”
“Somebody has been lying about him.”
“If that is true, how do the boys know that your father and Hal’s father, who were great chums, put it up to make a match between you when you were old enough? Who told that? Isn’t that one of the secrets you told Dick Merriwell yourself?”
Doris refused to answer. Her heart was beating furiously and she felt herself trembling a little.
“Miss Templeton,” Chet went on, “I don’t like to see you deceived by any fellow. You ought to know by this time that Dick Merriwell thinks more of my sister than he does of any one else. I will tell you what I have heard that he has said about this affair. He has told his friends that he hoped you would let him alone and take up with Darrell again.”
Quick as a flash, Doris straightened up, her eyes full of fire.
“Whoever has said such a thing, Chester Arlington, has lied,” she blazed.
Again he shrugged his shoulders.
“Perhaps they have,” he admitted. “I am only repeating the gossip of the school.”
“Well, I wish to hear no more of it. I wish you to let me alone. Come, Zona!”