ed 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, assented, 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 ha