"Where did you have tea; where?" demanded Mildred, smiling into Gorham's serious face. He instantly smiled back. Those cold, abstracted eyes of Page's had learned a new look recently, as though so much sunshine had warmed his heart that there was an overflow.
"It would make you so discontented with the Clambake, dear," suggested Clover with mischievous deprecation.
"Why, I will know."
"The New Jersey house."
"You selfish creatures! Aren't they?" exclaimed Mildred, calling upon Eames and Van Tassel to witness.
"Yes, we are," laughed Gorham, as he and Clover turned away. "We know it."
Mildred, her companions on either side of her, began her walk northward. Eames wished cordially that Jack would remember an engagement. Jack wished sincerely that he knew what Mildred wanted him to do. Unconsciously fulfilling the lieutenant's desire, he spoke:—
"I suppose I really ought to be at home attending to some correspondence I have been putting off, instead of loitering at the Clambake."
Eames answered without giving Mildred time to speak. "I shall be most happy to take Miss Bryant home after her curiosity is satisfied." Van Tassel's jealous ears detected the eagerness in his polite tone.
"But supposing my curiosity is not gratified by the time you are obliged to go and array yourself gorgeously for the evening? No, Jack, I am sorry for you, but Mr. Eames is engaged elsewhere."