And certainly for beauty of approach the Island of Mackinac is without a rival.
"Have you decided on your hotel yet, Mrs. Pennybacker?" he asked, a moment later.
"Yes, we've looked it up a little and think we shall go to the Island House. They say that is near where Anne lived, and we thought we would like that."
"How fortunate I am," he exclaimed with instant choice. "That's where I'm going myself."
Bess looked away toward Round Island with slightly heightened color.
It was in this very natural way that he attached himself to their party. It proved pleasant for them all. With the child he was prime favorite. He asked Bess one day what her real name was, and Bess, forgetting that Philippa had been the name agreed upon in case the question were ever asked, and remembering Varnum, had answered with some confusion that she was named after her mother.
"Well, naturally." he had laughed. "I suppose you mean for her mother."
In the good-natured raillery that ensued, Bess escaped, and he always supposed the child's name was Margaret.
He had never told them where he was from, beyond the fact that he was a Michigan man, until their intimacy was well established—an accidental omission, evidently, since he had told them almost everything else in his frank, boyish way. It was, therefore, with the utmost astonishment that Margaret one day heard him speak of Washington as his place of residence.
"Washington!" she exclaimed, "I thought Michigan was your home."