Free Escapade by Joan Smith Page B

stared at her with a frozen face, but she was finished with being afraid of him.
    “A frog-jumping race, Your Grace. We often do it at Fairmont. We happen to have a large pond."
    “As it happens, I too have a large pond,” he replied, with some evidence of thawing on his frozen features.
    “I was sure there would be one somewhere on your ten thousand acres,” she returned, quite sweetly, with just a bit of Prattle underlying the words. “We all go to the pond and catch our entry."
    “It sounds horrid,” Miss Sheridan said, looking at her pale pink city gown.
    Miss Sedgley opened her eyes a millimeter wider and nearly frowned in distaste, but at the last moment her muscles were not up to it, so she just looked.
    “No, really, Ella,” Lady Sara admonished.
    “But it sounds a capital idea,” Clare intervened, and immediately Miss Sheridan and all the others thought it a pretty good idea too. “We go to the pond, Miss Fairmont, and catch our entrants, then what?"
    “Well, catching your racer is half the fun, and it is a rule that everyone must catch his own. We set up a course about—oh, ten or fifteen yards long. We shall require some markings for a start and finish line, and of course a prize for the winner."
    “What prize do you suggest?” Clare asked, listening to her explanation and never taking his eyes from her while she talked.
    “Some little bibelot will do, or a guinea. At Fairmont we have an inscribed cup, since it has become an annual event."
    “What a pity I have no inscribed cup, but if you assure me a guinea will do...” His expression had not only melted, but was turning quite warm.
    Ella looked, half suspecting he was roasting her, but was determined to brazen it out. “Oh, yes, a guinea will do nicely."
    “Are there any other rules?"
    “Yes, you are not allowed to touch your racer from beginning to end. No giving him a nudge with your toe or finger, though you may follow along behind and give all the vocal help you wish. It is the shouting and yelling that make it fun."
    “By Jove, that sounds like great sport,” Mr. Peters said. “Let's go to the pond straight off. I bet a monkey my frog will take yours, Harley."
    “We'll see about that. Is a bullfrog allowed, Miss Fairmont?” Harley asked.
    “Yes, any frog at all. Bullfrogs are excellent. But don't make the mistake of getting a toad, for they can't keep up with a frog at all."
    “I know a toad from a frog,” Harley replied, wounded.
    “Must the girls catch their own frog, too, Miss Fairmont?” Sherry asked.
    “Yes, that is part of the rules, but you may use an old pair of gloves if you don't like to touch it and take a basket to carry it in."
    Clare quickly dispatched a footman for old gloves and baskets, and by the time everyone had put a question to Miss Fairmont to clarify the rules, and the gentlemen had indulged in an orgy of betting, he was back. The mothers stayed behind at the Pavilion, and in fact soon wended their way back to the house, but the young folks ran in high spirits to the pond, which was not so very far away.
    Belle Prentiss entered into this game as any other with great eagerness and determination to win. She cheated a little by getting Peters to actually lift her specimen from the pond, but she put it in the basket herself and struck up a new idea by calling it Count Ugolino, from Dante's Inferno , because it was so grotesquely ugly.
    Miss Sheridan cheated quite a lot. She smiled prettily at Bippy, and pointed out the frog she wanted, and he was kind enough to lift it from the lily pad for her and carry it in his basket. When Miss Fairmont was appealed to for a ruling on this, she allowed that as there was a shortage of baskets, it would be permitted. Lady Honor ignored all rules, as became a lady, and told Clare to get her a frog and take it to the starting line. She then went and stood under a beech tree while her will was done.
    “That is definitely illegal,” Ella told Clare.
    “Yes, but you see I