“Miss Burrage,” he bowed. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I didn’t know——”
“No intrusion,” she assured. “Let me introduce you to Mr. Merriwell. Frank, this is Mr. Fillmore, Mrs. Loder’s brother.”
“Glad to know you, Mr. Fillmore,” said Merriwell genially, as he grasped Fred’s hand. “Miss Burrage wrote me about you. You’re captain of the Hopkins lacrosse team, I think?”
“I have that honor.”
“An honor it is,” nodded Merry. “You are captain of the lacrosse champions of the United States at the present time.”
Fillmore was then introduced to Bart Hodge.
He noted that an unusual tide of color had suffused the cheeks of Elsie Bellwood, and now, of a sudden, he realized that she, like Inza, was a wonderfully pretty girl. The two girls were of strongly contrasting types.
“Mr. Fillmore has been very good to us, Bart,” said Elsie.
“Which places Frank and me under untold obligations to him,” said Hodge. “I have only one fault to find with him. He should have written me that you were ill. It was a crime for you girls to keep it from me.”
“I wanted to write,” said Inza; “but she wouldn’t let me tell you that.”