r repairs?"

"It is," said Bettina, "and that's the fun of it. He's living on board,
and yesterday he and Justin looked up and saw me on the porch, and they
insisted on having a lunch party, and Bobbie made his man get up a
perfectly wonderful little lunch, and he telephoned for the other girls,
and Duke, and we climbed the ladder and ate up there in the air, and
Sophie chaperoned us from your front porch."

"They wanted me to climb the ladder too," said Sophie, "but I told them
I would be a little angel up aloft, and play propriety at a safe
distance. It's a good thing the yacht yard happens to be at the foot of
your rocks, Diana, or I'm afraid Bettina would have gone unchaperoned.
It's a dizzy height up that ladder."

"And Bobbie sent things up to her in a basket," Bettina related; "we let
down a piece of hammock rope, and we tied the basket to it."

Diana, listening to the light chatter, felt set apart by the tragedy of
her own unhappiness. Once she would have enjoyed an escapade like the
lunch party; now she was glad that she could go away--and leave it all
behind her and perhaps--forget.

"Bobbie is such a funny fellow"--Bettina was still swinging the tinkling
rings--"and he's awfully in love with Doris. And Doris worships him, and
it makes Sara furious."

"But, my dear, Sara isn't the least bit in love with Bobbie."

"I know, but she thinks Doris is so silly to let Bobbie see--but that's
just what Bobbie adores in her. He likes to be worshiped, and he's
positively puffed up with pride like a pouter pigeon because he's going
to marry Doris."

"Then it's settled?" Diana asked.

"Yes. It seems he proposed on the night of the yacht club dance, and
yesterday at lunch Bobbie announced it, and he blushed and Doris
blushed--but really it was awfully sweet, Diana--they are so happy."

"At first I thought Bobbie liked Sara," Bettina stated, later.

"Oh, no." Diana laughed. "It's Justin, you know, with Sara."

The flashing rings tinkled, tinkled. Bettina's eyes were on them.

"Oh, are they--engaged?"

"Oh, no; it's just a friendship, I fancy."

So? Other girls were his friends! Bettina's head went up, and she
slipped the rings back in their hiding place.

"They've always known each other," Diana explained. "You see Sara was a
sharp-tongued little girl, and Justin could get along with her better
than the other boys because of his easy-going ways. And he gets along
with her now, but usually it is a sort of a