“Which is just what I intend to do! And that reminds me, one of the things I came to talk to you about: a swell shindig for Monday night!”
“Oh, what?” gasped Jane in delight.
“A party down on the island. Everybody goes in some kind of boat—naturally—all dressed up. I mean, the boats are to be all dressed up, you understand. With a prize for the best decorated of each kind. Then we’ll have a feed and play games.”
“That’s great!” cried Jane enthusiastically. “What’ll we go in, Mary Lou? The canoe?”
“I thought maybe you girls would come in my motorboat——”
“And lose the chance of winning a prize?” interrupted Mary Louise. “Thanks just the same, Cliff, but I’ve got an idea already.”
David McCall was coming up the porch steps just in time to hear the refusal, and he grinned broadly. This was just as it should be, he thought, looking possessively at Mary Louise.
Tall and dark and handsome, David McCall was indeed a contrast to Clifford Hunter in appearance. But Jane had already decided that she did not like him. Nobody twenty-two years old had any right to be so serious, even if he had been supporting himself for five years!
Mary Louise was a trifle embarrassed as she greeted him, wondering how he and Cliff would get along together. But Cliff spoke to him cordially.
“Hello, Dave,” he said. “Sit down. I’ve got a brand-new trick. You take a card——”