Harold closed his lips tightly, and shrugged his shoulders.
"As you please," he said; "maybe I will ask Marjorie for that day."
"Then you'll get left!" retorted Ruth triumphantly. "She has a date, too!"
"Well—then I'll ask Miss Maria!" he concluded, mentioning one who was the typical "old-maid" of the town, and who unconsciously bore the brunt of all the young people's jokes.
When Jack and Marjorie came over to Ruth's on Wednesday evening, Harold found the girl to be just as he had expected: rather quiet and diffident, even pretty, but not striking-looking; and he made no attempt to become intimate with her. After they had tired of playing cards, whenever Jack and Ruth saw fit to dance together, he offered to do likewise with Marjorie, as a mere matter of form. But he did not find her easy to talk to.
"Jack, what's Marj going to do on Friday?" Ruth asked as she poured the cocoa from the chafing dish on the tea-table.
Marjorie looked up, amused. She was sincerely thankful that Jack knew as little as Ruth about her coming adventure.
"You can search me!" replied the boy. "I did hear dad mention an auto ride."
"Your father?" repeated Ruth. "Is that all? And here I was picturing a secret meeting with an unknown lover——"