"We do, indeed!" echoed Hildegarde, archly. But the girl with the velvet pansy eyes made no audible remark, though her crimson lips parted, then shut quickly again.
The next moment the two gentlemen were gone, and the three young girls retraced their steps slowly hotelward along the beach. They had a much pleasanter subject to discuss now than the sunset.
"Isn't the new-comer handsome?" remarked Lily.
"Splendid! but not quite as Phil, though."
Again they both asked together:
"What say you, Ida?"
The girl with cheeks like a damask rose and velvety pansy eyes blushed to the roots of her jetty curls.
"He is like the hero of a novel. I have never seen any one so handsome before—so fair, so smiling—so—so—delightful," she answered.
"Ida May's heart has been hit by the first shot of those arrows of blue eyes," laughed Lily, mockingly. "I knew when she declared that, come what would, she would not fall in love with any young man she met at Newport, she was more than likely to meet her fate."