"Don"t want to go," said Diogenes between gulps.
"Needn"t go!" promised Beth. "Stay here with me, and we"ll have dinner with the boys and then we"ll go home and get some ice cream."
"All yite," agreed the appeased Polydore.
"May Lucien and I stay to dinner, too?" asked Rob humbly.
"No," she replied icily.
"But, Beth," I remonstrated. "Silvia will be worrying about Di. How can we explain?"
"Silvia has gone to Windy Creek for the day. You see, I met that woman you sent to the hotel, and she told me she saw Di going over the hill with a boy, and I suddenly seemed to smell one of your mice, so I sent the woman on her way, and told Silvia you and Rob had found Diogenes.
Just then some people she knew came along in a car and asked her to go to Windy Creek. I made her go and told her I"d look after Di."
"You"re a brick, Beth!" applauded Ptolemy.
"If you boys will be very careful and not let anyone besides us know you are here, so mudder will not hear of it, for though she"d like to see you"--this without a flicker or flinch--"we want her to have a nice rest. I"ll come over every day except tomorrow and bring things from the hotel store, and bake up cookies and cake for you."
A yell of approval went up.
"Why can"t you come tomorrow?" asked the greedy Demetrius.
"Because I"ve promised to go to the other end of the lake on a picnic.
All the people at the hotel are going."
"I"ll come tomorrow and spend the whole day with you," promised Rob.
"We"ll have a ride in the sailboat and do all sorts of things."
"Why, aren"t you going on that infernal picnic?" I asked.
"No; I"ll have all the picnic I want over here. Like Ptolemy I feel that I want to play with some of my own kind."
Beth looked at him approvingly; then she said a little sarcastically:
"Maybe you"ll change your mind--about going on the picnic, I mean--when you see the new girl who just came to the hotel on the morning stage. She"s a blonde, and not peroxided, either."
"That would certainly drive him down here, or anywhere," I laughed.
"Oh, don"t you like blondes?" she asked innocently.
"He doesn"t like--" I began, but Ptolemy rudely interrupted with an elaborate description of a new kind of fishing tackle he had bought.
Then Beth bade Pythagoras build a fire in the cook-stove while she set the room to rights.
"We"ll eat out of doors," she said, "I think it would be more appetizing."
"How did you get here?" Rob asked her as we were leaving.
"I rowed over."
"May I come over and row you back?" he asked pleadingly.
She hesitated, and then, realizing that she could scarcely manage a boat and Diogenes at the same time, a.s.sented, bidding him not come, however, until five o"clock.
"She"ll have enough of the Polydores by that time," I said to Rob on our way home.
"Do you know," he said reflectively, "I like Ptolemy. There"s the making of a man in him, if he has only half a chance. I didn"t suppose your sister understood children so well or was so fond of them. She looked quite the little housewife, too."
"You"d discover a lot of things you don"t know, if you"d cultivate the society of women," I informed him.
CHAPTER XI
_A Bad Means to a Good End_
When we were setting out on the proposed picnic the next day, Rob made himself extremely unpopular by announcing his intention to spend the day otherwise. The new blonde girl gave him fetching glances of entreaty which he never even saw. He made another sensation by proposing to keep Diogenes with him. To Silvia"s surprise, Diogenes voiced his delight and chattered away, I suppose, about playing with the boys, but fortunately no one understood him.
"Won"t you change your mind and come, too?" he asked Beth.
She seemed on the point of accepting and then firmly declined.
When we returned at six o"clock, Rob and Diogenes were awaiting us.
There was something in Rob"s eyes I had not seen there before. He had the look of one in love with life.
"Did you have a nice time playing solitaire?" asked Silvia.
"I had a very nice time," he replied with a subtle smile, "but I didn"t play solitaire. You know I had Diogenes."
"Diogenes apparently had a good time, too," said Silvia, looking at the child, who was certainly a wreck in the way of garments. "What did you do all day, Rob?"
"We went out on the water, played games, and had a picnic dinner outdoors."
"You had huckleberry pie for one thing," she observed, with a glance at Diogenes" dress, "and jelly for another, and--"
"Chicken, baked potatoes, milk, cake, and ice cream," he finished.
"Where did you get ice cream?" she asked.
"I went down to a dairy farm and got a gallon."
"A gallon!" she exclaimed. "For you and Diogenes?"
"We didn"t eat it all," he said guardedly. "I gave what we didn"t eat to some stray boys."
"I hope Di won"t be ill."