“Hang it all!” he murmured, “I’m going to chance it. She can’t any more than turn me down.”
A moment later he, too, had leaped ashore, tying the boat to an overhanging tree, and then he started to overtake the girl who occupied so much of his thoughts.
“I say—Miss Tyler—Madge!” he called.
“Oh, how do you do?” she replied, coldly, as though just aware of his presence.
“I—I don’t do very well,” blurted out Tom. “I—er—say, what’s the matter, Madge?” he asked helplessly and utterly unable to dissemble any longer.
“The matter? Why, I didn’t know that anything was.”
“Yes you did. That May walk—why wouldn’t you let me go with you?”
“Why, I fancied you had a previous engagement,” and her eyes, in which she could not altogether conceal the lurking glance of mischief, looked straight at Tom, making his heart beat faster than usual.
“Oh, you mean that Miss Benson? That was an accident. She had scratched herself and——”