“And I suppose your brother, Darrington, is over here, too?” asked Belle, her sharp eyes glancing all about the big veranda.
“Wrong again,” rejoined Amy, cheerfully. “But if you have any message for Darry you can trust me to deliver it to him.”
“Where is he?”
“Just about off Barnegat, if his plans matured,” said Amy composedly.
“Oh!” cried Belle. “Did he go out on that yacht? And without taking any of us girls?” and she began to pout.
“No mixed parties until the family can go along,” Amy said promptly. “Jess and I, even, haven’t been aboard the Marigold.”
“Oh, you children!” scoffed Belle. “I shouldn’t think that Darry and Burd Alling and that Mark 172 Stratford would want little girls tagging them. Why, they are in college.”
Belle really was a year older than the chums; but she acted, and seemed to feel, as though she were grown up. Amy stared at her with wide eyes.
“Well, I like your nerve!” said she. “Darry’s my brother. And I’ve known Burd Alling since he and Darry went to primary school. And so has Jess. I guess they are not likely to take strangers off on that yacht with them before they take Jess and me.”
Belle tossed her head and laughed just as though she considered Amy’s heated reply quite childish.