“Yes, that is true,” answered Joe. “It would be dreadful for him too.”
“When is he coming?” asked Sybil.
“I think next week. He sailed the day before yesterday.”
“Then there is plenty of time to settle on what you want to say,” said Sybil. “If you make up your mind just how to put it, you know, it will be ever so much easier.”
“Oh no!” cried Joe. “I will trust to luck. I always do; it is much easier.”
“Excuse me, Miss Brandon,” said the voice of Vancouver, who came up behind them at a great pace, and holding his feet together let himself slide rapidly along beside the two girls,–“excuse me, but do you not think you are very unsociable, going off in this way?”
“May I give you my arm, Miss Thorn?” asked Harrington, coming up on the other side.
Without leaving each other Joe and Sybil took the proffered arms of the two men, and the four skated smoothly out into the middle of the ice, that rang again in the frosty air under their joint weight. Mrs. Wyndham had insisted that Vancouver and Harrington should leave her and follow the young girls, and they had obeyed in mutual understanding.
“Which do you like better, Miss Brandon, boating in Newport or skating on Jamaica Pond?” asked Vancouver.
“This is better than the Music Hall, is it not?” remarked John to Miss Thorn.