"You need not worry about that," she said. "Think how pleased we shall be to see him when he comes home."
She waited anxiously for Dorothy's reply to her letter, which came two days later.
"I should have loved to come," so she wrote, "but only the day before I got your letter I accepted another invitation, but if you will ask me again later on, Marie, I'll be there like a bird."
Marie's first feeling was one of relief that Chris would not meet her, after all, but the next moment she was despising herself for the thought. How could she be so petty and jealous? And, besides, it would have been less lonely—Dorothy was always good company.
She told Chris of Dorothy's letter, but he seemed unimpressed.
"Well, I should ask her later on," he said casually.
"Yes, I will. Have you fixed anything up yet?"
120 "Yes—at least, Knight is doing all the arranging. Feathers is coming along, and another man, and that boy Atkins wanted to butt in, but I shall choke him off. He's such a kid, and besides"—he looked at her with his little frown—"I've not forgotten that he nearly drowned you."
"How absurd!" But the pleased color flew to her cheeks. Perhaps he had cared, after all, when he so nearly lost her.
"And—when are you going?" she asked hesitatingly.