The Cricket Part 53

"Good idea," said Percy, promptly.

"Not you. Just Isabelle and me. We want to talk."

"I--think I won't this morning. I--I'd rather not," began Isabelle.

Then she stopped short. He, the Son of the Morning, was coming forth.

She scarcely noticed that Mrs. Darlington was with him. Her face was suddenly so radiant that the others turned to look. He saw them. Now he would come to her--show them how it was between them!

But he did no such thing. He bowed, a trifle absently, and pa.s.sed within a few feet of them--near enough for them to hear him say:

"Paula, ever young and ever fair!"

They also saw the ravishing look she threw him.

"What a handsome man!" exclaimed Agnes.

"Lady-killer, I bet you," jeered Percy.

"Come on, Agnes, let's go for that walk on the beach," cried Isabelle.

She started off almost before any one understood her purpose.

"Hi there! are you trailing me behind?" called Percy.

"No," said Isabelle, shortly.

Agnes hurried after her, and when they had tramped the beach for a while, they sat down in the sand. Agnes remembered that Isabelle was "queer," but there was something pa.s.sionate about the way she threw herself into their reminiscences, that struck her as unnecessary. They spoke of Mrs. Benjamin, with tears on Agnes's part. She told of Mr.

Benjamin's pitiful efforts to go on with the school. He had been forced to give up the struggle, and Agnes lamented the necessity of going to a new school when she returned to New York.

"Now tell me about you," she demanded. "Why are you out of school?"

"I hated the school they sent me to last year, so this year I struck and went on the stage for a while."

"Why, Isabelle Bryce!" cried her friend, thrilled to the bone.

"But I didn't like it; it made me sick. So I, too came down here to get well."

She evaded questions on the subject of her stage career, and after some desultory talk they went back to the hotel. People were strolling to the beach for the bathing hour.

"Let's find Percy and go in," said Agnes.

Isabelle, having agreed to meet them on the beach, hurried off to change. Miss Watts went down to the sea with her; she did not wait for Agnes and Percy. She struck out for the farther raft. There was one a hundred feet from sh.o.r.e, and one farther out, for expert swimmers. She had just pa.s.sed the former when she became aware of some one in her wake, some one coming with speed. She slowed up a little.

"What do ye mean by swimmin' off alone like this?" demanded a well-known voice. She made no answer, but she did not increase her speed. He came up beside her. "This is plain childish folly, that's what it is," he bl.u.s.tered.

Isabelle rolled on her back and smiled faintly at the sky.

"Ye ought to be spanked, ye little devil."

"Some people are good at calling names," she remarked to the sky.

"I'm tellin' ye it's dangerous for you to start off for that far raft alone."

"Well, I'm asking you what business it is of yours?"

"Do ye want me to stand by and see ye drown yerself?"

"It's my privilege to drown myself if I like," she replied, as she struck off for the raft again. They swam to it in silence, and she pulled her slim satin body, like a shining eel, up onto the platform. He followed.

"You're a very disturbin' young person!" he said, sternly.

She lifted her eyebrows at him, with a baby stare. He looked away with a frown.

"Where is 'Paula! ever young and ever fair'?" she inquired. "Is she displaying herself on the beach?"

He grinned.

"Not she. Paula is a very clever woman--she knows her own limitations,"

he replied. "h.e.l.lo! here comes somebody."

It proved to be Major O'Dell, the man who had looked after Larry on shipboard. He glared at them and climbed aboard the raft.

"Larry, ye fool, what do ye mean by takin' such a swim as this on yer first day?" he demanded, hotly.

"I came to rescue this young mermaid," he answered.

"It's damfoolishness--that's what it is. I beg yer pardon, Miss--Miss----"

"Bryce" from Larry.

"This man is here convalescing, and it is folly for him to over-exert himself in any such manner," he scolded her.

"I didn't invite him to come," said she. "He forced his society on me.

Now that you're here to tow him in, I'll leave him to you," she added; and with that she dived off.

"Wait a minute. Major O'Dell wants to rest," cried the Captain.

"Let him. Let him rest a month," came back the answer, as the shining head turned toward the distant sh.o.r.e.

"I've got to go after her, O'Dell. It isn't safe," protested Larry.

"Who appointed you her nurse?"

"d.a.m.n it! man, the child might drown."

He went overboard and started after Isabelle. O'Dell, with a far-from-pretty word, followed. In some such procession they finally arrived at the beach. Isabelle stepped forth, shook her slim black self, ran up the beach and back like a colt, and joined Miss Watts, sedate as a debutante. Captain O'Leary approached them.

"Miss Watts," said he, "it is none of my affair, of course, but if you have any authority over this young woman, you will forbid her to swim alone to the farther raft."