Vita came out to announce lunch and she stood dumbfounded. Vita was not Americanized to the point of diplomacy.
“You lose your good clothes? Those t’ings not yours?” she asked blandly.
“I have one like this,” replied Nora. She did know how to respond to interference, and had not yet quite forgiven Vita for the attic episode.
“Don’t you like it, Vita?” asked Jerry, his brown eyes twinkling. “We were thinking of getting you one like it—for your tramps through the woods, you know.”
The Italian woman scowled. She lacked a sense of humor as well as some other details of Americanization.
“Don’t tease her, Jerry,” Ted ordered. “He is only fooling, Vita,” she assured the perplexed maid, while visions of the fat woman in a jaunty little Scout uniform filtered through the brains of both Ted and Nora.
During lunch time conversation ran to the important occurrence of the morning, but Ted did not know all about the ducking in the Lake, and since Betta had cautioned Nora to keep secrets and if necessary to make them, it seemed unwise to tell every single detail: thus Nora reasoned. So it happened neither Ted nor Jerry knew whether the first swim was intentional or accidental, and both respected the “secrets of the order,” as Jerry put it.
“The girls are coming over this afternoon with a manual,” the candidate said as tea was finished, “and then I’ll have to do some studying.”
“I see where Cap and I will have to paddle our own canoe hereafter,” lamented Jerry. “That’s just the way with you girls. I get you all broke in and you race off and join up with the Indians. Well,” he sighed deeply, “I suppose Ted and I and Cap will have to go on our picnics alone, in spite of all our plans.”
“Oh, Cousin Jerry! Did you have a picnic planned!” eagerly asked Nora, leaving her place at the table to join Jerry on the big couch.