he little
captain was always noble and high-minded. She was capable of generous
impulses and she loved her friends so dearly that she would do anything
in the world for them. But she was proud and a trifle vain. She hated
to be snubbed and treated as though she were absolutely of no
importance. So she had quite made up her mind to be revenged on Flora
Harris. Just at the time she could think of no better way than to make
friends with Flora's particular admirer, Alfred Thornton. He was an
extremely wealthy young man in prospect, his father being a Pittsburg
millionaire. Flora was a snob; she was only seventeen, but her mother
was a foolish, flighty woman, who allowed her daughter to think that
she was already grown-up. Although Flora was not out of school, her
mother never ceased to preach to her that she was not to marry a poor
Army officer, so the young girl was pleased to have a wealthy young man
as one of her admirers.

Madge knew that Alfred Thornton was snobbish and mean-spirited. She did
not like him. She decided that on the night of the ball. She had seen
him exchanging smiles with Miss Harris behind their backs before Tom
Curtis had introduced him as his friend. This merely confirmed her bad
opinion of him. But she realized that young Thornton had been attracted
by her, and she naughtily resolved to turn his attentions from the
elegant Miss Harris to herself. When she went into her cabin to dress
for their tea-party it was with the determination to teach the girl she
disliked that Madge Morton, country-bred though she might be, was a
force yet to be reckoned with.

At two o'clock that afternoon Miss Jenny Ann and the four girls
received their guests, and a little later tea was served on the deck at
the dainty tea table under the big Japanese umbrellas. Madge, looking
radiant in a little frock of white organdie dotted with tiny green
leaves, poured the tea.

Tom Curtis had brought with him four or five young men from the camp.
Flora Harris, looking utterly bored, a faint smile of cynical amusement
on her face, accompanied by her cousin, Alice Paine, had crossed the
bay in a steam launch with Jimmie Lawton. Never before had the
houseboat held so many visitors, and the young hostesses did all in
their power to entertain their guests.

* * * * *

"We have had a delightful afternoon," smiled Alice Paine as, later, the
two young women declared that they must go back to Old P