"You horrid boy!" she cried. "You horrid, horrid boy!"
There, I admit, she scored. I did not in the least object to her thinking me horrid, but at nineteen one does object to being mistaken for a boy.
"I am not a boy," I explained.
"Yes, you are," she retorted; "a beast of a boy!"
"If you do it again," I warned her--a sudden movement on her part hinting to me the possibility--"I'll kiss you again! I mean it."
"Leave the room!" she commanded, pointing with her angular arm towards the door.
I did not wish to remain. I was about to retire with as much dignity as circumstances permitted.
"Boy!" she added.
At that I turned. "Now I won't go!" I replied. "See if I do."
We stood glaring at each other.
"What right have you in here?" she demanded.
"I came to see Mr. Deleglise," I answered. "I suppose you are Miss Deleglise. It doesn't seem to me that you know how to treat a visitor."
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Mr. Horace Moncrieff," I replied. I was using at the period both my names indiscriminately, but for this occasion Horace Moncrieff I judged the more awe-inspiring.
She snorted. "I know. You're the house-maid. You sweep all the crumbs under the mats."
Now this was a subject about which at the time I was feeling somewhat sore. "Needs must when the Devil drives;" but as matters were, Dan and I could well have afforded domestic assistance. It rankled in my mind that to fit in with the foolish fad of old Deleglise, I the future Dickens, Thackeray and George Eliot, Kean, Macready and Phelps rolled into one, should be compelled to the performance of menial duties. On this morning of all others, my brilliant literary career just commenced, the anomaly of the thing appeared naturally more glaring.
Besides, how came she to know I swept the crumbs under the mat--that it was my method? Had she and Dan been discussing me, ridiculing me behind my back? What right had Dan to reveal the secrets of our menage to this chit of a school-girl? Had he done so? or had she been prying, poking her tilted nose into matters that did not concern her?
Pity it was she had no mother to occasionally spank her, teach her proper behaviour.
"Where I sweep our crumbs is nothing to do with you," I replied with some spirit. "That I have to sweep them at all is the fault of your father. A sensible girl--"
"How dare you speak against my father!" she interrupted me with blazing eyes.
"We will not discuss the question further," I answered, with sense and dignity.
"I think you had better not!" she retorted.
Turning her back on me, she commenced to gather up her hairpins--there must have been about a hundred of them. I assisted her to the extent of picking up about twenty, which I handed to her with a bow: it may have been a little stiff, but that was only to be expected. I wished to show her that her bad example had not affected my own manners.
"I am sorry my presence should have annoyed you," I said. "It was quite an accident. I entered the room thinking your father was here."
"When you saw he wasn't, you might have gone out again," she replied, "instead of hiding yourself behind a picture."
"I didn't hide myself," I explained. "The easel happened to be in the way."
"And you stopped there and watched me."
"I couldn't help it."
She looked round and our eyes met. They were frank, grey eyes. An expression of merriment shot into them. I laughed.
Then she laughed: it was a delightful laugh, the laugh one would have expected from her.
"You might at least have coughed," she suggested.
"It was so amusing," I pleaded.
"I suppose it was," she agreed, and held out her hand. "Did I hurt you?" she asked.
"Yes, you did," I answered, taking it.
"Well, it was enough to annoy me, wasn't it?" she suggested.
"Evidently," I agreed.
"I am going to a ball next week," she explained, "a grown-up ball, and I've got to wear a skirt. I wanted to see if I could manage a train."
"Well, to be candid, you can't," I assured her.
"It does seem difficult."
"Shall I show you?" I asked.
"What do you know about it?"
"Well, I see it done every night."
"Oh, yes; of course, you're on the stage. Yes, do."
We readjusted the torn skirt, accommodating it better to her figure by the help of hairpins. I showed her how to hold the train, and, I humming a tune, we commenced to waltz.
"I shouldn't count my steps," I suggested to her. "It takes your mind away from the music."
"I don't waltz well," she admitted meekly. "I know I don't do anything well--except play hockey."
"And try not to tread on your partner's feet. That's a very bad fault."
"I do try not to," she explained.
"It comes with practice," I assured her.
"I'll get Tom to give me half an hour every evening," she said. "He dances beautifully."
"Who's Tom?"
"Oh, father."
"Why do you call your father Tom? It doesn't sound respectful."
"Oh, he likes it; and it suits him so much better than father.
Besides, he isn't like a real father. He does everything I want him to."
"Is that good for you?"
"No; it's very bad for me--everybody says so. When you come to think of it, of course it isn't the way to bring up a girl. I tell him, but he merely laughs--says it's the only way he knows. I do hope I turn out all right. Am I doing it better now?"
"A little. Don't be too anxious about it. Don't look at your feet."
"But if I don't they go all wrong. It was you who trod on mine that time."
"I know. I'm sorry. It's a little difficult not to."
"Am I holding my train all right?"
"Well, there's no need to grip it as if you were afraid it would run away. It will follow all right. Hold it gracefully."
"I wish I wasn't a girl."
"Oh, you'll get used to it." We concluded our dance.
"What do I do--say 'Thank you'?"
"Yes, prettily."
"What does he do?"
"Oh, he takes you back to your chaperon, or suggests refreshment, or you sit and talk."
"I hate talking. I never know what to say."
"Oh, that's his duty. He'll try and amuse you, then you must laugh.
You have a nice laugh."
"But I never know when to laugh. If I laugh when I want to it always offends people. What do you do if somebody asks you to dance and you don't want to dance with them?"
"Oh, you say your programme is full."
"But if it isn't?"
