I found at the store
made quite a hit.

"We played baseball, fished, and had a spread on the shore. 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 assured 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 trac