When Bert reached his room that night he found Dick Starbright just turning in, and he hastily told his chum his story, for he had decided that he must ask him what he thought of the counterpart of Inza Burrage he had beheld in that house on Whitney Avenue.
“I knew you’d be late,” said Starbright. “You always are.”
“But I wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t forgotten the number,” Bert insisted. “But I don’t want a sermon; I want to know what you think about that young woman who looked so much like Inza Burrage that at first I could have sworn it was she?”
Dick sat down and deliberately looked his chum over.
“Honor bright, not a thing, except a glass of wine at Mrs. Whitlock’s. But I hadn’t even smelled the wine when I saw that girl.”
“I shouldn’t think anything about it if it hadn’t been for Amos Belton,” declared the big freshman. “His presence there makes the thing a mystery to me, though, of course, there is no mystery in it. Perhaps he called on some young lady there who remarkably resembles Inza Burrage. You say yourself it was not Inza Burrage, but only looked like her.”
“No, perhaps not. But, as you know, it’s been reported that he is wildly in love with Inza. She doesn’t care anything for him, of course, for she’s crazy about Merriwell.”
“Yes, that’s what I think myself. Well, now, does it strike you as possible that Belton, being unable to get any encouragement from Inza, may have turned to this girl, who looks so much like her? Seems to me there may be your explanation.”
“But what made them disappear so strangely when she discovered me?”
“You scared her, probably,” grinned Dick. “Perhaps she took you for a burglar. I’ve an idea that you looked rather wild-eyed about that time. You were excited, and, no doubt, your face showed it. Seeing a man standing in the hall, which she supposed unoccupied, she was naturally frightened. Any girl would have been.”
“Well, now, ask me something easy. How do I know?”
Dashleigh sat down in a chair. He was not satisfied.
“I heard the other day that Belton is soon to quit Yale,” Dick volunteered.
“Who said it did? I merely made the remark. He has fallen so low in his exams that he can go no farther. Seems to me that was what I heard. Either that or money matters forces him out of Yale. But probably it isn’t money matters, for he could find something to do to keep himself up.”