“Oh, no,” denied Eveley, flushing a little. “He is just a pleasant in-between-whiles. We are fellow-Americanizers, that is all.”
“Does Mr. Hiltze know that?” queried Marie.
“Oh, everybody knows that I belong to Nolan when the time comes,” said Eveley, laughing.
Nolan, urgently warned by Eveley, met Marie with friendly ease and asked no questions. He took her hand cordially and said in his pleasant voice. “Well, if you are Eveley’s sister, I have a half-way claim upon you myself, and you must count me in.” And then he promptly began mashing potatoes for their dinner, and Marie did not mind him at all.
When Amos Hiltze came to the Cloud Cote she joined serenely with them, very easy and comfortable, always careful to go to her room before he left, that he might have a little while alone with Eveley. For she saw plainly that while he interested Eveley only in his enthusiasm for Americanization, for him Eveley had a deeper and sweeter charm.
One Saturday afternoon when Nolan was busy, the two girls went out for a picnic on the beach, a well-filled basket in the car for their dinner. On a sudden impulse, Eveley turned to Marie and cried:
“Oh, little sister, how would you like to learn to drive? Then you can take me to the office and have the car yourself to play with while I am busy.”
“Eveley,” came the ecstatic gasp, “would you—let me?”
“Would I let you?” laughed Eveley. “Should you like it? Why, you have been wanting to, haven’t you? Why didn’t you ask me, Marie?”
“Oh, I couldn’t.”