Gene knew Merriwell had paid Elsie great attentions in the past, and it was his belief that Frank still cared for her. Therefore, he regarded the securing of the first waltz with her as a very clever thing on his part.
Frank saw Elsie with Skelding, and he was astonished, for he did not know the fellow was Mrs. Parker’s nephew, and he wondered how he had obtained her for that dance.
A sudden fear came to Frank. Was it possible that Elsie did not care for Bart, and had taken particular pains to avoid him, giving this dance to another for the purpose of causing him pain? No, he could not think that of her. Elsie was not the girl to deliberately give pain to any one she regarded as her true friend.
But perhaps she really did wish to avoid Bart. Perhaps she considered this as the best way of showing him what her wishes were. If she did not care for Bart—what then? Frank remembered the past, and it gave him no little uneasiness.
“Why hasn’t Hodge told her of my engagement to Inza?” he inwardly cried.
Then he realized that he was standing there with those girls talking to him, yet without understanding a word they had been saying for the past three minutes.
The college men ventured to come up and bear one after another of the girls away. Frank selected one, and was soon in the midst of the waltz.
In vain he looked for Bart. Hodge was not dancing. Indeed, Bart had withdrawn from the house to the veranda, where he stood facing the cool breeze that felt so pleasant on his flushed cheeks.
“Curse that fellow!” he inwardly cried. “Properly, this is my dance with her. Why did she give it to him?”
He longed to throttle Skelding. The fact that Elsie was waltzing with a member of the despicable Chickering set caused him to grind his teeth in rage. He felt a touch on the arm.