Mr. Archibald opened his eyes very wide. “Your friend is certainly a remarkable young man,” said he, “but we must not have any bad feeling in camp, so let everything remain as it is for to-night. I suppose he wished to be near his sister, but at least he might have asked permission.”
“I think,” said Clyde, “that he did not so much care to be near his sister as he did to be away from the bishop, who is now left alone in our little shelter-tent.”
Mr. Archibald laughed. “Well,” said he, “he will come to no harm, and we must see that he has some supper.”
“Oh, I shall attend to that,” said Clyde, “and to his breakfast also. And, now I come to think of it, I believe that one reason Raybold moved our tent over here was to get the benefit of his sister’s cook. The bishop did our cooking, you know, before he took to his bed.”
That evening Miss Raybold joined the party around the camp-fire. She declared that in the open air she did not in the least object to the use of tobacco, and then she asked Mr. Archibald if his two guides came to the camp-fire after their work was done.
“They do just as they please,” was the answer. “Sometimes they come over here and smoke their pipes a little in the background, and sometimes they go off by themselves. We are very democratic here in camp, you know.”
“I like that,” said Miss Raybold, “and I will have Mrs. Perkenpine come over when she has arranged the tent for the night. Arthur, will you go and tell her?”
Her brother did not immediately rise to execute this commission. He hoped that Mr. Clyde would offer to do the service, but the latter did not improve the opportunity to make himself agreeable to the new-comer, and Raybold did the errand.
Harrison Clyde was sitting by Margery, and Margery was giving a little attention to what he said to her and a great deal of attention to Corona Raybold.
“More self-conceit and a better-fitting dress I never saw,” thought Margery; “it’s loose and easy, and yet it seems to fit perfectly, and I do believe she thinks she is some sort of an upper angel who has condescended to come down here just to see what common people are like.”