Our Next-Door Neighbors Part 16

"He won't," a.s.serted Rob. "I am sure he is made of cast iron."

Throughout dinner Rob remained in high spirits. He kept eyeing Beth in a way that disconcerted her, and then suddenly he would smile with the expression of one who knows something funny, but intends to keep it a secret.

Presently Silvia left us and went upstairs to give Diogenes a bath before she put him to bed.

"You've had two days' freedom from the last of the Polydores," I called after her. "Doesn't it seem delightful?"

"Lucien," she answered slowly, "I've really missed the care of him. I was lonesome for him all day."

"He isn't such a bad little kid when he is out from Polydore environment," I admitted, regretting that he had been restored to it.

"Now tell us all about your day with the boys," Beth asked Rob, when we were left alone. "It really does seem too bad to keep a secret from Silvia, and yet it is a case of where ignorance is bliss--"

"It would be folly to be otherwise," finished Rob. "Well, Diogenes and I left here with a boat load of supplies in the way of provender and things for the boys. I had to tie Diogenes in the boat, of course, so he would not try some aquatic feat. He objected and yelled like a fiend all the way. I was glad there was no one at the hotel to come out and arrest me for cruelty to children. Of course before we landed, his cries were heard by his brothers and they were all at the water's edge. They made mulepacks of themselves and transferred the commissary supplies. The ice cream and bats and b.a.l.l.s which I found at the store made quite a hit.

"We played baseball, fished, and had a spread on the sh.o.r.e. Then Ptolemy and I rowed out to where the sailboat was. I explained the mysteries of the jib and he caught on instantly. We took in the other Polydores and sailed for a couple of hours. Then we all went in swimming."

"Not Diogenes!"

"Certainly. I tucked him under my arm and he seemed perfectly at home, although greatly disappointed because we didn't succeed in catching a snake.

"I finally landed them all safely under the roof of the Haunted House, and Ptolemy a.s.sured me it was the best day of his young life. In appreciation of the diversions I had afforded him, he made a confession which proved such good news to me that I was a lenient listener and exacted no penalty."

"What was it?" I asked.

"He told me that on the day of Miss Wade's and my arrival at your house, he had made a misstatement to each of us and had not repeated to us accurately what he had overheard you telling Silvia when he was on the porch roof. Miss Wade, what did he tell you about me?"

"He said that Lucien said that your only failing was that you were daffy over women and made love to every one you saw."

"Oh, Beth!" I cried, light bursting in, "and you believed that little wretch?"

"I did."

"Then that is why you have been so--"

"Yes--so--" repeated Rob grimly.

"Well, I never did have any use for a man-flirt, and I was awfully disappointed, for I had thought from what Rob said that you were a man's man."

"And then, of course, when for the first time in my life I began being interested in a woman--in you--I played right into that little scamp's hands."

"He is a man's man, Beth," I said warmly. "What Ptolemy heard me say was that Rob was a woman-hater."

"I am not!" declared Rob indignantly--"just a woman-shyer, but I haven't finished with Ptolemy's confession. I wonder, now, if either of you can guess what he told me was Miss Wade's characteristic."

"I don't dare guess," laughed Beth.

"What I did say about Beth was that she was a born flirt."

"I am not!" protested my sister, in resentment.

"I should prefer that appellation to the one he gave you. He said you were strong-minded and a man-hater."

Even Beth saw the irony of this.

"I asked him," continued Rob, "what his motive was, and he said 'Stepdaddy didn't want Beth to know about the man-hater business,' so he took that means of throwing you off the track.

"I took the occasion to talk to him like a Dutch uncle, though I don't know exactly what that is. I think it was the first time anything but brute force had been tried on him. I must have touched some little flicker of the right thing in him, for he was really contrite and seemed to sense a different angle of vision when I explained to him what havoc could be worked by the misinformation of meddlers. He promised me he'd try to overcome his tendency to start things going wrong."

I made no comment, but it occurred to me that Ptolemy was a shrewd little fellow, and that there had been wisdom back of his strategic speeches to Beth and Rob, for he had taken the one sure course to make them both "take notice."

"So, Beth," said Rob, and her name seemed to come quite handily to him, "can't we cut out the past ten days and begin our acquaintance right?"

"I think we can," she answered.

"I had better go upstairs," I suggested, "and tell Silvia that Diogenes doesn't need a bath, seeing he has been in swimming."

Neither of them urged me to remain, so I went up to our room and found Silvia tucking Diogenes under cover.

"What did you come up for?" she asked. "I was just coming down to join you."

"Beth is treating Rob so--differently, that I thought it well to retreat."

"I am so glad! Whatever came over the spirit of her dreams?"

"They've just discovered in the course of conversation that Ptolemy as usual crossed the wires and told Beth Rob was a flirt, and then informed Rob that Beth was strong-minded and a man-hater."

"Oh, the little imp!" she exclaimed indignantly.

"I don't know. It worked, anyway, so Ptolemy was the bad means to a good end."

"How did they ever happen to discover what he had done?"

"They caught on from something Rob said," I told her, feeling again guilty at keeping my first secret from her.

"It will be a fine match for Beth," said Silvia. "Rob is such a splendid man, and then he has plenty of money. He can give her anything she wants."

I winced. I think Silvia must have been conscious of it, even though the room was dark, for she came to me quickly.

"I wish I could give you--everything--anything--you want, Silvia."

"You have, Lucien. The things that no money could buy--love and protection."

Well, maybe I had. I had surely given her protection from the Polydores, though she didn't know to what extent.

"I am going to give you more material things, though, Silvia. When we go home, I shall start to work in earnest and see if I can't get enough ahead to make a good investment I know of."

"I'd rather do without the necessities even, Lucien, than to have you work any harder than you have been doing. We must let well enough alone."