After they had eaten, the girls and boys felt very lazy and lingered in the pretty library before the open fire till the shadows began to fall.
“I hope we have half-way decent weather to start out on to-morrow,” said Paul suddenly as he gazed out of the window.
“Oh! must you go to-morrow?” asked Billie, with such genuine regret that Teddy looked at her sideways.
“I’m afraid so,” said Paul, also turning to look at her. “We’ve had a bully good time and we’d like to stay longer, but you see I promised Dad I’d pick him up a little farther along the coast and I can’t do it unless we start to-morrow.”
“But suppose it isn’t a nice day?” Connie put in. “Will you go anyway?”
“Oh, of course, if it was really stormy we couldn’t. We would have to wire Dad or something. But I think it’s going to be clear to-morrow,” he finished cheerfully.
Connie shook her head.
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “Uncle Tom says that a terribly heavy mist like this generally forecasts a storm, and a pretty bad storm, too.”
“Well, we don’t have to worry about that now, anyway,” said Teddy, stretching his long legs out contentedly toward the fire. “Let’s enjoy ourselves while we can. By the way,” he added, turning to Billie, and Billie thought that Teddy was getting better looking every minute—or was it the firelight? “What did you girls mean by speaking of a mystery? We haven’t heard a word about any mystery.”
“Of course you haven’t. You don’t suppose we tell you everything, do you?” said Laura, with a sisterly sniff.