“Well, I’m going to see to it that that girl has her eyes opened during this trip!” thought Mrs. Courtney to herself.
But Polly and Eleanor were whispering between themselves, and their plotting might be considered along the same lines as those of the chaperon. Mr. Dalken, engrossed with Mr. Alexander, had left the girls to choose between Jack’s society or exchange personal confidences; they chose the latter as being the lesser of two tiresome evils. Hence Jack went forward to smoke, and the two girls began to plan just how they might bring about a settled state of affairs between Mrs. Courtney and their dear friend, Mr. Dalken.
“We ought to have clean sailing in the next few months, Nolla,” said Polly. “No other man or woman to interfere in the match, you know.”
“But Dalky will be so taken up with schemes, and going off to investigate holes in the ground, that Mrs. Courtney will feel disgusted.”
“‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder,’” quoth Polly, laughing. “Just because he won’t always be at beck and call, and because he compares so favorably with other men, it will be an incentive to her love—if she feels any.”
“If! There’s that awful ‘if’ in the way!” sighed Eleanor.
“Well, anyway, Nolla, we ought to be able to find out one of two things on this western trip—whether she does love him, or whether she doesn’t! I’m not so sure but that daily companionship on board a private yacht is coma to spontaneous love. You can always tell, from day to day, just what is about to happen, and who will be in the party. Now, out here, where great things occur frequently, these two may discover how dear each is to the other. I’ve known hurricanes, land-slides, and little things like that, to be instrumental in opening the eyes of lovers.” Polly spoke as though the “trifles” just mentioned were casual incidents in a westerner’s life.
Eleanor laughed. “I’m from the Windy City, Poll, but I’m sure we wouldn’t consider a hurricane or an Omaha cyclone ‘little things’ to help on a love-affair. Better let nature take its course.”
So plotted two pairs of match-makers: the two girls on the one side, and Mrs. Courtney and Tom (who felt intuitively that he had a champion in her) on the other side. Which pair would win the first place, in successfully bringing about an understanding, in regard to the others remained to be seen—there also remained the long winter in balmy Arizona, during which the two affairs might thrive splendidly. Who could tell?