“Oh, yes. He’s glad to have people here, I think, because he thinks that if they see how lovely it is, they will want to buy the land. I suppose perhaps these people on the yacht have permission from him to come here, just as we have. But I do wish they had waited until we had gone, or else that they had come and gone before we got here at all.”
“Perhaps they will just stay for the night,” said Margery. “I should think that a small boat like that would be very likely to put in overnight, and do its sailing in the daytime. Probably the people on board of her aren’t in a hurry, and like to take things easily.”
“Well, we won’t find out anything about her to-night, I imagine,” said Eleanor. “In the morning we’ll probably learn what their plans are, and then it will be time to make any changes that are necessary in our own arrangements.”
“Do you mean you wouldn’t stay here if they did, Miss Eleanor?”
“I won’t say that, Margery. We don’t know who they are yet. They may be very nice people—there’s no way of telling to-night. But if they turn out to be undesirable, we can move quite easily, I think. There are plenty of other beaches nearby where we’ll be just as comfortable as we are here.”
“Oh, but I don’t believe any of them are as beautiful as this one, Miss Eleanor.”
“Neither do I, Margery. Still, we can’t always pick and choose the things we do, or always do what pleases us best.”
On the yacht everything seemed to be quiet. When the anchor had gone down, the violin playing ceased, and, though the girls strained their ears to listen, there was no sound of conversation, such as might reasonably have been expected to come across the quiet water. Still there was nothing strange about that. It might well be that everyone on board was below, eating supper, and in that case voices would probably not come to them.
“I’d like to own that yacht,” said Dolly, gazing at her enviously. “What a lot of fun you could have with her, Bessie! Think of all the places one could see. And you wouldn’t have to leave a place until you got ready. Steamers leave port just as railroad trains pull out of a station, and you may have to go away when you haven’t half finished seeing all the things you want to look at.”
“Maybe they’ll send a boat ashore soon,” said Margery, hopefully. “I certainly would like to see the sort of people who are on board.”