Cap"n Amazon stared at her unwinkingly for a minute. Then all he said was:
"I wonder?"
CHAPTER XXV
AUNT EUPHEMIA MAKES A POINT
Lawford Tapp did not appear at the store and Louise continued to wonder about it; but she shrank from asking Betty Gallup, who might have been able to inform her why the young man did not come again. However, on one bright morning the gray roadster stopped before the door and Louise, from her window, saw that the three Tapp girls were in the car.
She thought they had come to make purchases, for the store on the Sh.e.l.l Road was often a port of call for the automobiles of the summer colonists. Suddenly, however, she realized that L"Enfant Terrible was standing up in the driver"s seat and beckoning to her.
"Oh, Miss Grayling!" shrilled Cecile. "May I come up? I want to speak to you."
"No," commanded Prue firmly, preparing to step out of the car. "I will speak to Miss Grayling myself."
"I don"t see why she can"t come down," drawled Marian, the languid.
"_I_ have a message for her."
"Why!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the surprised Louise, "if you all wish to see me I"d better come down, hadn"t I?" and she left the window at once.
She had remarked on the few occasions during the last few days that she had met the Tapp sisters on the beach, that they had seemed desirous of being polite to her--very different from their original att.i.tude; but so greatly taken up had Louise"s mind been with more important matters that she had really considered this change but little.
Therefore it was with some curiosity that she descended the stairs and went around by the yard gate to the side of the automobile.
"Dear Miss Grayling," drawled Marian, putting out a gloved hand.
"Pardon the informality. But mother wants to know if you will help us pour tea at our lawn fete and dance Friday week? It would be so nice of you."
Louise smiled quietly. But she was not a stickler for social proprieties; so, although she knew the invitation savored of that "rawness" of which her aunt had remarked, she was inclined to meet Lawford"s family halfway. She said:
"If you really want me I shall be glad to do what I can to make your affair a success. Tell your mother I will come--and thank you."
"So kind of you," drawled Marian.
But Cecile was not minded to let the interview end so tamely--or so suddenly.
"Say!" she exclaimed, "did Ford see you, Miss Grayling, before he went away?"
"He has gone away, then?" Louise repeated, and she could not keep the color from flooding into her cheeks.
"He wanted to see you, I"m sure," Cecile said bluntly. "But he started off in a hurry. Had a d.i.c.kens of a row with dad."
"Cecile!" admonished Prue. "That sounds worse than it is."
Louise looked at her curiously, though she did not ask a question.
"Well, they did have a shindy," repeated L"Enfant Terrible. "When daddy gets on his high horse------"
"Ford wished to see you before he went away, Miss Grayling," broke in Prue, with an admonitory glare at her young sister. "He told us he was so confused that day he fell overboard from the _Merry Andrew_ that he did not even thank you for fishing him out of the sea. It was awfully brave of you."
"Bully, _I_ say!" cried Cecile.
"Really heroic," added Marian. "Mother will never get over talking about it."
"Oh! I wish you wouldn"t," murmured Louise. "I"m glad Betty and I saved him. Mrs. Gallup did quite as much as I----"
"We know all that," Prue broke in quickly. "And daddy"s made it up to _her_."
"Yes. I know. He was very liberal," Louise agreed.
"But mercy!" cried Prue. "He can"t send _you_ a check, Miss Grayling.
And we all do feel deeply grateful to you. Ford is an awfully good sort of a chap--for a brother."
Louise laughed outright at that. "I suppose, though never having had a brother, I can appreciate his good qualities fully as much as you girls," she said. "Will he be long away?"
"That we don"t know," Marian said slowly. Louise had asked the question so lightly that Miss Tapp could not be sure there was any real interest behind it. But Cecile, who had alighted to crank up, whispered to Louise:
"You know what he"s gone away for? No? To get a job! He and father have disagreed dreadfully."
"Oh! I am so sorry," murmured Louise. She would not ask any further questions. She was troubled, however, by this information, for L"Enfant Terrible seemed to have said it significantly. Louise wondered very much what had caused the quarrel between Lawford and his father.
She got at the heart of this mystery when she appeared at the lawn fete to help the Tapp girls and their mother entertain. She was introduced at that time to the Taffy King. Louise thought him rather a funny little man, and his excitability vastly amused her.
She caught him staring at her and scowling more than once; so, in her direct way, she asked him what he meant by it.
"Don"t you approve at all of me, Mr. Tapp?" she asked, presenting him with a cup of tea that he did not want.
"Ha! Beg pardon!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the candy manufacturer. "Did you think I was watching you?"
"I _know_ you were," she rejoined. "And your disapproval is marked.
Tell me my faults. Of course, I sha"n"t like you if you do; but I am curious."
"Huh! I"d like to see what that son of mine sees in you, Miss Grayling," he blurted out.
"Does he see anything particular in me?" Louise queried, her color rising, but with a twinkle in her eye.
"He"s crazy about you," said I. Tapp.
"Oh! Is _that_ why you and he disagreed?"
"It"s going to cost him his home and his patrimony," the candy manufacturer declared fiercely. "I won"t have it, I tell you! I"ve other plans for him. He"s got to do as I say, or----"
Something in the girl"s face halted him at the very beginning of one of his tirades. Positively she was laughing at him?
"Is _that_ the reef on which you and Lawford have struck?" Louise asked gently. "If he chooses to address attentions to me he must become self-supporting?"