Edward and Elinor had carried the tea basket and a package of sandwiches into the little hollow, and the rest now followed.
“What a beautiful spot, what an ideal place,” they cried, as they grouped themselves about the little dell, while Elinor opened her tea basket and laid out the dainty crockery and the kettle.
There was a spring bubbling in the dell, and the ground all about was carpeted with a thick bed of moss. The yellow jasmine grew in abundance there and violets were thickly strewn in the shady corners.
“What an enchanting place——” Miss Campbell was saying, when suddenly Edward, the chauffeur, said “Sh-h-h,” and pointed to the upper branches of an immense old pine at the edge of the grove.
“Listen,” he whispered.
Hidden among the thick green foliage, a bird was singing the most lovely, trilling song imaginable. The liquid notes poured from his little, quivering throat like so much pure gold. It was such a joyous song and they were so afraid he might stop that they hardly dared breathe. Elinor clasped her hands rapturously and tears came into her eyes.
“It’s a mocking bird,” whispered Edward, proudly.
So much absorbed and enchanted were they with the music that they did not notice what was taking place on the beach. Two steps up and they would have seen something which would have caused them a far different emotion. Clarence, who had no business whatever in the Firefly, leaped into it for a moment, then back again into his own boat, and presently the chug-chug of his engine broke the spell of the mocking bird’s song.
CHAPTER V.—THE TWO EDWARDS.
“‘Knowest thou the land of the citron bloom,’” sang Elinor as she busied herself with the tea things.