“I’m glad to see you, Dick, and I hope you are getting into form for the nine.”
Frank longed to say more, but that was no time nor place for it. He realized that Starbright had opened his eyes to the fact that Inza Burrage really and truly loved him as she had in the old days, if not more intensely, and, regarding himself as an interloper, Dick had withdrawn and left the field to Frank, with the result that Merry had proposed and was accepted.
No time had been set for the marriage, but over the gate of the old home in Fardale they had plighted their troth, and it seemed certain that the happy day must come at last.
Looking into Frank’s eyes, Dick fancied he read the truth there. Despite himself, despite his nobleness in withdrawing, he felt a pang of pain.
Inza was lost to him!
“That’s it, Merriwell!” cried Irving Nash. “You’re needed here to wake the men up. They say the prospects for a winning ball-team this season are decidedly dark.”
Merry looked serious.
“We’ll have to see how that is,” he said.
Chickering’s set had not rushed to greet him, and now they were moving away, seeking to escape without attracting attention. Rupert had expressed a desire to go over and shake hands with Frank, but Skelding had prevented it.
“Don’t give that fellow Hodge another chance to call you down,” he advised. “Besides that, you know Merriwell does not think much of you.”