"Bell, may I speak to you a moment?" said Margaret.
Bell looked up from a critical inspection of the Tintinnabula, which had been somewhat injured in the race. "Certainly, May Margaret!" she said. "Do you want to know why my poor boatie did not win? I have just found out." Then, looking up, and seeing Margaret's disturbed face, she rose instantly.
"Something is wrong?" she said, quickly. "Come this way, under the trees, where it is quiet. You have had no bad news, dear?"
"Oh, no!" said Margaret. "But—Bell, I have something very disagreeable to tell you. It seems terrible to say anything that may make trouble, but nothing makes so much trouble as untruth, and I do think you ought to know this. I don't think the Jollycumpop really won the race!"
"My dear Margaret! she came in well ahead; didn't you see—"
"Listen, Bell!" and Margaret told in a few words the story of the dropped oar.
Bell listened with keen attention, and when Margaret had finished, whistled two bars of the Siegfried motif very correctly before she spoke.
"The little animal!" she said at last. "Well, Margaret, do you know, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is—to say nothing about it, at present."
"But—Bell! Gerald really won!"
"I know! but, even as it is, Jerry can hardly keep his hands off Claud. My one prayer is that we may be able to get the boy off to-morrow without an open quarrel breaking out. You see, Margaret, when they were little, it was all right for Jerry to thrash him. He did it punctually and thoroughly, every time they met, and it was very good for the boy; but now of course it is out of the question."