Chapter XVIII. Love Put to Work.
On the following day there was the usual bustle of change and
departure that is characteristic of a large summer resort on Monday
morning. Stanton found Mrs. Mayhew very ready to occupy the seats
he had obtained, and all the more so from his statement of the fact
that several others had spoken for them.
"Ida, my dear," called her mother; "come here, I've good news for
you. Ik has got us out of that odious corner of the dining-room,
and secured seats for us at Mr. Van Berg's table."
"I wish no seat there," she said decisively.
"Oh, its all arranged, my dear; and a good many others want the
seats, but Ik was too prompt."
"I'll stay where I am," said Ida, sullenly.
"And have every one in the house asking why?" added Stanton,
provokingly. "Mr. Van Berg treats you as a gentleman should. Why
cannot you act like a lady toward him? If I were you I would not
carry my preferences for the Sibley style of fellows so far that
I could not be civil to a man like my friend."
"You misjudge me," cried Ida, passionately.
"You have a strange way of proving it. All that is asked of you is
to sit at the same table with a gentleman who has won the respect
and admiration of every one in the hotel, whose society is peculiarly
agreeable to your mother and myself, and who has also shown unusual
courtesy towards you ever since he learned who you were.
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