Every morning after that Elithe spent an hour or so in her room poring over the Bible until she knew a good deal about Adam and Seth and many more of the patriarchs. If she had a longing for the flesh-pots as represented by the Rink and Casino and the dances at the hotel, she did not show it. But the fun was in her just the same, and she never heard the band in the distance that she did not keep time to it with her hands or her feet, and more than one waltz the little kitchen saw when she was alone, with no one to criticise. She had not yet joined the bathers on the beach, although urged to do so by Paul, who promised to teach her to swim and to float and to help her in every way, if he knew when she was to be there.
“I am going to-morrow,” she said to him one day when he called.
“All right. I’ll find you, if I don’t go blue fishing. Some of us fellows are talking of it,” he answered, as he bade her good afternoon and started across the fields in the direction of the Percy cottage.
When he was gone Elithe brought out her bathing suit and tried it on for her aunt’s inspection.
“That’s decent,” Miss Hansford said, “and doesn’t show your arms and legs as some of ’em do,—Clarice Percy’s, for instance. I declare to goodness it makes me blush when I see her and some of ’em like her, with nothing on but a little skirt, you may say!”
Elithe had been down to the beach and seen the little skirts and thought them and their wearers immodest. Hers, however, was right. It came some ways below her knees, and if the sleeves were rather short it did not matter so much. Her arms were very pretty and she knew it, and her aunt knew it and thought with a good deal of satisfaction that Clarice couldn’t beat them. That night Elithe dreamed she was in the surf with Paul and Mr. Pennington, both contending for her and holding her under the water till she woke to find a soft shower falling outside and the rain beating upon her face from the open window.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ELITHE AND CLARICE.
It was the fashionable hour for bathing. The band, which alternated between Oceanside and the Heights, was to play that morning, and the pavilion was full of people watching the bathers diving, swimming and jumping and filling the air with shouts of laughter. Elithe had wanted her aunt to come with her, but Miss Hansford had excused herself and consigned her to the care of a lady, who promised that she should not stay in the water too long or get beyond her depth. At first Elithe looked round for Paul. He was not to be seen, and, thinking he had probably gone fishing, she took possession of her bath room and arrayed herself in her blue suit, which was rather baggy and conspicuous from its over size. She, however, did not think so, and started gayly with her friend across the platform or bridge leading to the water. At the head of the steps Clarice Percy was standing, clad in a fanciful costume of black, trimmed with scarlet, and exposing so much of her person that Elithe felt ashamed for her, and wondered how she could look so unconcerned with so many masculine eyes upon her. Although Clarice had not called upon Elithe, she had seen her several times and knew she was at the bath house, for they had come down in the same car, she sitting in front and Elithe, who got in later, in the rear. Clarice usually bathed at the Tower on the Oceanside, as it was nearer her mother’s cottage, but this morning she was at the Heights for a purpose of her own. Paul had told her the previous night not to expect him the next day, for, if he did not go fishing, he should be at the Heights, as Elithe was to take her first bath and he had promised to see to her.
Paul had talked too much of Elithe to suit Clarice, who sometimes felt that she hated the girl because of his interest in her. She was, however, too politic to show her real feelings. Smiling very sweetly, she said: “That will suit me perfectly, as I am going there, too. I’m told it is not as stony as at the Tower.”
Thoroughly honest and open in everything he said or did, Paul did not see through the ruse, and was rather glad than otherwise to show off Clarice’s accomplishments as diver and swimmer to the people at the Heights. He could attend to Elithe first and her afterwards, and he hoped the fishing party might be given up, as it was at the last moment, and this made him late at the beach. Glancing at the bathers and seeing neither Clarice nor Elithe among them, he dressed himself leisurely, and, going out, found Clarice waiting for him. She had heard that the fishing was given up and knew Paul would be there. She had seen Elithe when she appeared at the end of the long platform, and watched her as she came across it. Something in the dress first attracted and then startled her so that her look was a stare when Elithe came close to her. For a moment their eyes met, and Elithe’s kindled a little expectantly, then fell under the haughty gaze confronting them.