“Philip Holt has come, Madge,” announced Phyllis Alden a few days later. “He is staying at one of the hotels until Mrs. Curtis and Tom arrive to open their cottage. He has already been calling on a number of Mrs. Curtis’s friends here. Now he has condescended to come to see us. Miss Jenny Ann says we must invite him to luncheon; so close that book, if you please, and come help us to entertain him. I am sure you will be so pleased to see him.”

Madge frowned, but closed her book obediently. “What a bore, Phil! 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 resentful expression softened. She did not bear malice, and she felt that she had said more to Roy Dennis about his treatment of them than she should have done. She, therefore, bowed pleasantly. Phil followed suit. To their amazement they were greeted with a frozen stare by the newcomers, who walked to where the two girls were standing without paying the least attention to the latter. Madge’s color rose to the very roots of her hair. Phil’s black eyes flashed, but she kept them steadily fixed on the girl and man.

“How do you do, Mr. Holt?” asked Mabel in bland tones, addressing the girls’ companion. “I believe I am right in calling you Mr. Holt. I have heard that you were a friend of Mrs. Curtis and her son. This is my friend, Roy Dennis. We are so pleased to meet any of dear Mrs. Curtis’s real friends. We should like to have you take tea with us.”

Philip Holt looked perplexed. He opened his mouth to introduce Madge and Phyllis to Miss Farrar, but the girls’ expressions told the story.

Miss Farrar and Mr. Dennis had purposely excluded the two girls from the conversation.

For the fraction of a second Philip Holt wavered. Mabel Farrar was smartly dressed. Roy Dennis looked the rich, idle society man that he was. Moneyed friends were always the most useful in Mr. Holt’s opinion, he therefore turned to Miss Farrar with, “I shall be only too pleased to accompany you.”

“You’ll excuse me,” he turned condescendingly to Madge and Phil, “but Mrs. Curtis’s friends wish me to have tea with them.”

Madge smiled at the young man with such frank amusement that he was embarrassed. “Oh, yes, we will excuse you,” she said lightly. “Please don’t give another thought to us. Miss Alden and I wish you to consult your own pleasure. I am sure that you will find it in drinking tea!” She turned away, the picture of calm indifference, although she had a wicked twinkle in her eye.

“Well, if that wasn’t the rudest behavior all around that I ever saw in my life!” burst out Phil indignantly after the disagreeable trio had departed. “Mrs. Curtis or no Mrs. Curtis, I don’t think we should be expected to speak to that ill-bred Mr. Holt again. The idea of his marching off with that girl and man after the way they treated us! I shall tell Mrs. Curtis just how he behaved as soon as I see her, then she won’t think him so delightful.”

Madge put her arm inside Phil’s. “You had better not mention it to Mrs. Curtis, Phil. Mrs. Curtis is the dearest person in the world, but she is so lovely and so rich that she is used always to having her own way. She thinks that we girls are prejudiced against this Mr. Holt because he said the things he did about Tania. By the way, I wonder what the little witch has against him? I mean to ask her some day. But let’s not trouble about Philip Holt any more. He is just a toady. I don’t care what he says or does. We have done our duty by him for this afternoon at least. He won’t join us again. Let’s go over to that lovely hill and have a good, old-fashioned talk.”

Phil’s face cleared. After all, she and Madge could get along much, better without troublesome outsiders.

“Isn’t it a wonderful afternoon, Phil?” asked the little captain after they had climbed the little hill and were seated on a grassy knoll. “We can see the ocean over there! Wouldn’t you like to be swimming down there under the water, where it is so cool and lovely and there would be nothing to trouble one?”

“What a water-baby you are,” smiled Phil, giving her chum’s arm a soft pressure. “I sometimes think that you must have come out of a sea-shell. I suppose you are thinking of the old pearl diver again.”

“Phil,” demanded Madge abruptly, “have you ever thought of what profession you would have liked to follow if you had been born a boy instead of a girl?”

“I do not have to think to answer that,” replied Phyllis, “I know. If I were a boy, I should study to become a physician, like my father; but even though I am a girl, I am going to study medicine just the same. As soon as we get through college I shall begin my course.”

“Phil,” Madge’s voice sounded unusually serious, “don’t set your heart too much, dear, on my going to college with you in the fall. I don’t know it positively, but I think that Uncle is having some business trouble. He and Aunt have been worried for the past year about some stocks they own. I shan’t feel that I have any right to let them send me to college unless I can make up my mind that I shall be willing to teach to earn my living afterward. And I can’t teach, Phil, dear. I should never make a successful teacher,” ended Madge with a sigh.

“I can’t imagine you as a teacher,” smiled Phil, “but I am sure that you will marry before you are many years older.”

“Marry!” protested Madge indignantly. “Why do you think I shall marry? Why, I was wishing this very minute that I were a man so that I could set out on a voyage of discovery and sail around the world in a little ship of my own. Or, think, one might be a pearl-diver, or lead some exciting life like that. Now, Phil Alden, don’t you go and arrange for me just to marry and keep house and never have a bit of fun or any excitement in my whole life!”

Phyllis laughed teasingly. “Oh, you will have plenty of excitement, Madge dear, wherever you are or whatever you do. Don’t you remember how Miss Betsey used to say that she knew something was going to happen whenever you were about? I suppose you would like to be a captain in the Navy like your father, so that you could spend all your time on the sea.”

“No,” returned Madge, “I should want a ship of my own. I wouldn’t like to be a captain in the Navy. There, you always have to do just what you are told to do, and you know, Phil, that obedience is not my strong point.” The little captain laughed and shook her russet head. “You see, Phil, I think that if I could go around the world, perhaps in some far-away land I would find my father waiting for me.”

For several minutes the two chums were silent. At last Phil leaned forward and gave Madge’s arm a gentle pinch. “Wake up, dear,” she laughed, “perhaps some day you will own that little ship and go around the world in it. Just now, however, we had better go on to the houseboat. I believe Nellie and Lillian are going to wait at the golf club until the last mail comes in, so they can bring our letters along home with them. We must say good-bye to that nice Ethel Swann. She is a dear, in spite of her ill-bred friends.”

Phyllis and Madge found Miss Jenny Ann sitting in a steamer chair on the houseboat deck exchanging fairy stories with Tania. The little girl knew almost as many as did her chaperon, but Tania’s stories were so full of her own odd fancies that it was hard to tell from what source they had come.

“Do you know the story of ‘The Little Tin Soldier,’ Tania?” Miss Jenny Ann had just asked. “He was the bravest little soldier in the world, because he bore all kinds of misfortunes and never complained.”

With a whirl Tania was out of Miss Jenny Ann’s lap and into Madge’s arms. The child was devoted to each member of the houseboat party, but she was Madge’s ardent adorer. She liked to play that she was the little captain’s Fairy Godmother, and that she could grant any wish that Madge might make.

Phil, Madge and Tania sat down at Miss Jenny Ann’s feet to hear more about “The Brave Little Tin Soldier.” Tania huddled close to Madge, her black head resting against the older girl’s curls, as she listened to the harrowing adventures that befell the Tin Soldier.

The sun was sinking. Away over the water the world seemed rose colored, but the shadows were deepening on the land. Phil espied Lillian and Eleanor coming toward the houseboat. Lillian waved a handful of white envelopes, but Eleanor walked more slowly and did not glance up toward her friends.

Miss Jenny Ann rose hurriedly. “I must go in to see to our dinner,” she announced. “Phil, after you have spoken to the girls, will you come in to help me? Madge may stay to look after Tania.”

The little captain was absorbed in a quiet twilight dream, and as Tania was in her lap she did not get up when Phil went forward to meet Lillian and Eleanor.

Instantly Phil realized that something was the matter with Nellie. Eleanor’s face was white and drawn and there were tears in her gentle, brown eyes. Lillian also looked worried and sympathetic, but was evidently trying to appear cheerful.

“What is the matter, Eleanor? Has any one hurt your feelings?” asked Phil immediately. Eleanor was the youngest of the girls and always the one to be protected. Phyllis guessed that perhaps some one of the unpleasant acquaintances of Roy Dennis and Mabel Farrar might have been unkind to her.

But Eleanor shook her head dumbly.

“Nellie has had some bad news from home,” answered Lillian, tenderly putting her arm about Eleanor. “Perhaps it isn’t so bad as she thinks.”

Madge overheard Lillian’s speech and, lifting Tania from her lap, sprang to her feet.

“Nellie, darling, what is it? Tell me at once!” she demanded. “If Uncle and Aunt are ill, we must go to them at once.”

“It isn’t so bad as that, Madge,” answered Eleanor, finding her voice; “only Mother has written to tell us that Father has lost a great deal of money. He has had to mortgage dear old ‘Forest House,’ and if he doesn’t get a lot more money by fall, ‘Forest House’ will have to be sold.”

Nellie broke down. The thought of having to give up her dear old Virginia home, that had been in their family for five generations, was more than she could bear.

Madge kissed Eleanor gently. In the face of great difficulties Madge was not the harum-scarum person she seemed. “Don’t worry too much, Nellie,” she urged. “If Uncle and Aunt are well, then the loss of the money isn’t so dreadful. Somehow, I don’t believe we shall have to give up ‘Forest House.’ It would be too frightful! Perhaps Uncle will find the money in time to save it, or we shall get it in some way. I am nearly grown now. I ought to be able to help. Anyhow, I don’t mean to be an expense to Uncle and Aunt any more after this summer.” Madge’s face clouded, although she tried to conceal her dismay. “Do Uncle and Aunt want us to leave the houseboat and come home at once?”

Phil’s and Lillian’s faces were as long and as gloomy as their other chums’ at this suggestion.

But Eleanor shook her head firmly. “No; Father says positively that he does not wish us to leave the houseboat until our holiday is over. It is not costing us very much and he wishes us to have a good time this summer, so that we can bear whatever happens next winter.”

No one had noticed little Tania while the houseboat girls were talking. Her eyes were bigger and blacker than ever, and as Madge turned to go into the cabin she saw that there were tears in them.

“What is it, Tania?” putting her arms about the quaint child.

“Did you say that you didn’t have all the money you wanted?” inquired Tania anxiously. “I didn’t know that people like you ever needed money. I thought that all poor people lived in slums and took in washing like old Sal.”

Madge laughed. “I don’t suppose the people in the tenements are as poor as we are sometimes, Tania, because they don’t need so many things. But don’t worry your head about me, little Fairy Godmother. I am sure that you will bring me good luck.”