I was
just reading this fascinating book on pearl-fishing. A few valuable
pearls have been found in these waters. There was one which was sold to a
princess for twenty-five hundred dollars. Who knows but the 'Merry Maid'
may even now be reposing on a bank of pearls! Dear me, here is that
tiresome Mr. Holt! Of course, we must be nice with him on Mrs. Curtis's
account. I hope she and Tom will soon come along. Let us take Mr. Holt
with us to the golf club this afternoon. We promised Ethel Swann to come
and she won't mind our bringing him."

The girls were not altogether surprised that the young people whom they
had lately met at Cape May were divided into two sets. The one had taken
the girls under their protection and seemed to like them immensely. The
other, headed by Mabel Farrar and Roy Dennis, treated them with cool
contempt. But the girls felt able to take care of themselves. Not one of
them even inquired what story Mr. Dennis and Miss Farrar had told about
their memorable meeting on the water.

The Cape May golf course stretches over miles of beautiful downs and the
clubhouse is the gathering place for society at this summer resort.

Ethel Swann bore off Lillian and Eleanor to introduce them to some of her
friends, and the three girls followed the course of two of the players
over the links.

Philip Holt was plainly impressed by the smartly-dressed women and girls
whom he saw about him. He was a tall, thin young man with sandy hair and
he wore spectacles. He insisted that Madge and Phyllis should not forget
to introduce him as the friend of Mrs. Curtis, who expected him to be her
guest later on. Indeed, Philip Holt talked so constantly and so
intimately of Mrs. Curtis that Madge had to stifle a little pang of
jealousy. She had supposed, when she was in New York City, that Mrs.
Curtis, who was very generous, only took a friendly interest in Philip
Holt and his work among the New York poor, but to-day Philip Holt gave
her to understand that Mrs. Curtis was as kind to him as though he were a
member of her family. And Madge wondered wickedly to herself whether Tom
Curtis would be pleased to have him for a brother. She determined to
interview Tom on the subject as soon as he should return from Chicago.

Later in the afternoon Madge and Phyllis were surprised to see Roy Dennis
and Mabel Farrar come down the golf clubhouse steps and walk across the
lawn toward them, smiling with apparent friendliness. Madge's resentfu