"Oh, nonsense." retorted Miss Bentley, flushing. "It's nothing at all, especially coming from such a source."
"Then some one has been giving me the roasting that I plainly deserve?" laughed Captain Prescott.
"It's all foolish talk, and I'm sorry the girls couldn't hold their tongues," cried Laura impatiently.
"Then I won't ask you what it was," suggested Dick, "since you don't like to tell me voluntarily."
"You might as well, Laura," urged Faith.
"It's that Phin——-" began Jessie.
"Do be quiet, Jess," urged Belle.
"Why," explained Laura Bentley, "Phin Drayne just passed us, and stopped to chat when Jessie spoke to him——-"
"I didn't," objected Miss Vance indignantly. "I only said good afternoon, and—-"
"I asked Drayne if he had been out to the field for practice," continued Laura. "He grunted, and said he'd been out to see how badly things were going."