"You're sure Violet isn't there?" asked Edgar quickly.
"Oh, perfectly," rejoined Mrs. Wright quietly. "We're as much warned off the Villa as ever, now, you know. I hope he is going to do great things."
"Yes, I hope so," said Edgar absently. "This full sunlight isn't particularly good for Violet's head. Don't you think I'd better find her and get her out of it?"
"Oh, it's the steadiest little head in the world. Last night was simply the exception that proves the rule."
"Well, then, she'll be fit for tennis. I'm going to find her and see if we can't have some singles before dinner."
"All right, if you can find her."
Edgar tossed his head. "Perhaps I couldn't put a girdle 'round the earth, but this island's a cinch"; and with the beribboned box under his arm and the sun glinting on his polished blond head, Edgar set off running toward the rocks where Kathleen had met her slip.
Perhaps, he reflected, it was just as well that Violet had been hors de combat last evening. If they had come down here in the moonlight, and he had sung, and she had turned upon him that wonderful, confiding, devout look which warmed every fibre of his vanity, there is no telling what he might have said or done. He was shrewd enough to know that Mrs. Larrabee's rebuff had caused a rebound in which just such an innocent, womanly girl as Violet Manning could catch his heart in both hands. She had laughed at him yesterday afternoon, and to force her to capitulate he might have done something foolish in the evening. Now that pitfall—the time, the place, and the girl—was past, and the bright clear winds of morning found him forewarned and forearmed; but friendly, perfectly friendly. He thoroughly liked Violet Manning.
All this time he was running toward the show-place at high tide, the precipitous rocks whose walls and crannies repulsed the crashing waves, causing a never-ending series of fountains, and cascades of crystal water.
A few penguins in shade hats studded the heights this morning, but Violet was not among them. He walked past slowly, scanning the rocks. A few rods farther on, a small harbor pierced the island's side. Its farther bank was soft with evergreens; a sturdy growth of tall spruces which fixed their roots amid the inhospitable rocks.