"Dear Mr. Ryan, you are doing nothing, and we are all so comfortably idle here in the shade. It will be most kind if you will hold my skein of yarn."
The young man held out his hands with ready obedience. Elsie was only two or three yards away, and he was content.
A few moments later Miss Kilner rose and took Jamie by the hand; and at the same instant Mrs. Verdon gave a sudden exclamation.
"I have left my little white shawl in the boat!" she cried. "It's a dear little shawl. I wouldn't lose it for the world."
"I will get it for you," Elsie said readily. "Jamie and I are going down to the boat before he says 'Good-night.'"
"Oh, thanks!" Mrs. Verdon responded gratefully; and then she glanced at Arnold, as if she expected him to sit down beside her on the grass.
But he remained standing bolt upright for a second. Then he took a stride in Elsie's direction. "I think I'll look after the shawl myself," he was heard to say. "Giles's old brain is apt to get confused after any kind of excitement."
Francis Ryan made an uneasy movement, but he was tied and bound with the skein of yarn; and Mrs. Lennard, winding steadily, was smiling into his eyes.
The hand which held Jamie unconsciously tightened its grasp, and the boy looked up in surprise.
"Why do you squeeze me so hard, Elsie?" he asked. "I ain't going to run away."