The three girls seemed to have found companions suited to their tastes, for they had paired off with three of the boys. In advance were John Smith and Agnes Mayfair, the tall lad looking rather awkward beside the graceful, dark-eyed girl. Just behind them were Dolph Renwood and Dora Deland, Dora seeming very well satisfied with her conquest, if conquest it was.
“They make a good pair,” declared Don to himself, with curling lips. “She’s called the prettiest girl in the village, and it has spoiled her, for she thinks every fellow who sees her is struck on her. She has an idea that the village boys are not good enough for her, so she always smiles on strangers. Just because Renwood comes from Boston she has an idea that he’s a superior sort of person. Bah! He is welcome to her, and she’s welcome to him.”
Following Dolph and Dora were Dick Sterndale and Dolph’s sister. The lips of the watching lad tightened and his brows lowered.
“So she has taken up with Sterndale,” he whispered. “I expected she would, for he has a way of getting round any girl; but she’s too good for him, even if she is Renwood’s sister. If she’d ever heard him joke about his mashes, as I have, she’d take care. She’d better keep away from him if she values her good name.”
For all that Dora Deland was the belle of the village, in Don’s eyes she did not compare at all favorably with the city girl, who carried herself with more grace and whose clothes had a certain something about them that bespoke better taste. In fact, there was that marked difference between the two girls that always distinguishes the city-bred from those reared in the country.
Dick’s hearty laugh rang out as his companion made some observation.
“Yes, that is where he lives,” said the captain of the eleven, with a motion toward Don’s home.
The boy behind the hedge neared Dick’s words, and then Zadia said something he did not hear, but Sterndale laughed again in his hearty way.
“Talking about me!” grated Don, his teeth clenched. “She is laughing, too! I suppose she thinks I’m a common country fool! What do I care for what she thinks!”
Still he watched them as they passed onward down the tree-lined street, and his heart was hot in his bosom.