THE NASSAU PARTY MEET BY MARY’S HAMMOCK
“Oh, I don’t want you to be,” Betty assured her solemnly. “This is another kind of thing altogether.” Whereupon she was allowed to deliver Miss Hale’s invitation.
The Nassau party met by Mary’s hammock under the apple-trees, which were now fast losing their freight of snowy blossoms, and walked up to Ethel’s together. On the way they argued good-naturedly over the possibility of their hearing anything about the romance.
“I’m afraid there isn’t any to hear about now,” said Mary, sadly. “But it certainly had a beautiful start.”
“Start, did you say?” demanded Madeline with an irritating smile.
“Yes, I did,” returned Mary, calmly. “I don’t see how you can possibly deny that for two people who barely knew each other before, they got along amazingly fast. I shan’t argue any more about particular cases, but certainly if we hadn’t taken Miss Hale to Nassau, Dr. Eaton would never have fallen in love with her. That’s a romance in itself. But I suppose you’d say that he wasn’t in love.”
“Oh, no, I shouldn’t,” returned Madeline, promptly. “Should you, Betty?”
“No, I shouldn’t either,” laughed Betty, thinking of the orange blossoms and her queer interview with Dr. Eaton on shipboard. “But I can’t give my reasons against the match-making theory and Madeline won’t give hers, so let’s not argue.”