As the ladies
have been anxious about the skipper, and asked van Buren to get one,
they'll probably be thankful it's all right, and only too glad to accept
a friend of yours in the place."

"Poor, deceived angels! What's to prevent your snatching one of them
from under my very nose?"

"You must run the risk of that. Besides, you needn't worry about it till
you make up your mind which angel you want."

"I should naturally want whichever one you did. We are made like that."

"If you don't agree, and they go 'botoring' without you, you can't get
either."

"That's true. Most disagreeable things are. And there's just a chance,
if you get dangerous, that Tibe might polish you off. I saw the way he
looked at you. Well, needs must when somebody drives. It's a bargain
then. I'll tell the girls what a kind, generous Dutch friend I have.
We'll be villains together."

IX

We settled that Starr should see Miss Van Buren and Miss Rivers and tell
them that skipper, chauffeur, and chaperon all being provided, there was
nothing to prevent the tour beginning to-morrow. Having done this,
without bringing in his obliging friend's name, he was to meet me at the
Rowing Club at three o'clock with a detailed report of all that had
happened up to date.

Never was time slower in passing. Each minute seemed as long as the
dying speech of a tragedian who fancies himself in a death scene. I
wanted to use some of these minutes in writing to Robert, but it would
be premature to tell him that I was going to look after his cousin and
her sister on the trip, as the ladies might abandon it, rather than put
up with my society.

When ten minutes past three came, and no Starr, I was certain that they
would not have me. I could hardly have been gloomier if I'd been waiting
for a surgical operation. But another five minutes brought my
confederate, and the first sight of his face sent my spirits up with a
bound.

"It's all right," he said. "They've come back from Scheveningen. I saw
them at their hotel, and they're more beautiful than ever. They were
prostrate with grief at hearing I hadn't been able to get hold of a
skipper; consequently they were too excited to ask your name when I gave
them the cheering news that a Dutch friend had come to the rescue. They
simply swallowed you whole, and clamored for the next course, so I added
the--er--glad tidings of my aunt's arrival this evening, and poured the
last drop of joy in their cup by say