Merry lost little time in drawing Buck aside and asking where Elsie was stopping, explaining that he had not found her.
Buck did not know, nor did Winnie, who told how she had corresponded with Elsie, who had been in New York, thus informing her when she would arrive in New Haven. Elsie had called soon after their arrival, and the trio had set out for a visit to Merry.
“But she is coming to my house to dinner this evening,” Winnie explained. “You may see her then, for I want you to be there, Frank. You’ll come?”
Of course Merry accepted the invitation. Winnie added that it was to be a little party of college friends, and that Inza would likewise be present.
Frank glanced toward the dark-haired girl, discovering that she was engaged in earnest conversation with Starbright, the big fellow standing in an attitude of absorbed attention, while his blue eyes devoured her with an expression of intense admiration in their honest depths. Winnie noted Frank’s look, and she pinched his arm, whispering:
“That looks very, very bad—for you. She told me he is your friend, and I invited him to dinner to-night. If you’re still sweet on Inza you want to be careful that your friend Richard Starbright doesn’t cut in and take her away from you. He is just the sort of fellow a dark-eyed girl like Inza is liable to get struck on.”
Again that strange pang of jealousy smote through Frank Merriwell’s heart, but he calmly said:
“I do not believe Inza could find a finer fellow in the whole wide world.”