She sighed. "Well, I'm the one that can feel for you, Dicky." Here the sigh lifted and her laugh pealed like a chime of silver bells. "I guess Brother Jack doesn't know as much about your affairs as he thinks, does he – eh? Why, he told me you were more afraid of a girl than of a mad dog."
And a slapping grip fell on my shoulder that made me tingle from head to toe. And yet I wished she wouldn't do that; if she did it again, I should just lose my head – I knew I should.
But here she rose, stretched her arms, and dropped into the wicker arm-chair. She hitched it nearer to me.
"You see, it's like this," she began, assuming a confidential air. "You know my sister's up at school at Cambridge, too."
"At Radcliffe College – yes." I nodded.
"Why, yes. Well, it's her room-mate!"
"Eh? I don't believe I – " I paused perplexedly.
"That's right – her room-mate, I tell you! And in a day or two she's coming home with Sis for a visit. I want you to come up for a week end – won't you – and look her over – I mean, see her and tell me what you think of her. You'll go crazy about her – oh, I know you will!"
I entered a protest. "Oh, I say now, you know, there's only one girl I ever saw I would care to look at twice."
She smiled adorably. "Oh, don't I know all about how you feel? But I just want you to see this girl – she's the prettiest and swellest that's been around Boston for many a day; and on Sunday morning she could give the flag to all the Avenue. Why, Dicky, she's from China!"
"China!" I must have looked the scorn I felt. "Oh, come now, you don't think a Chinese girl is – "
"Not Chinese, Dicky." In her eagerness, she moved so near, the silk of her pajamas brushed my hand. "She's English. Her dad's the British Governor General of Hong Kong – Colonel Francis Kirkland, you know – beefy-looking old chap with white mutton chops – I saw his picture."
Hong Kong! I wondered if she knew Mastermann, the chap who had sent me the red pajamas. Why, dash it, of course she would; for this fellow Mastermann was out there on government business, and he and the Governor must be thrown together a good deal.
Her musical laugh broke in on my speculations. "But the funniest thing is, Dicky, her name's the same as mine."
Her name! By Jove, and until this moment, I had not thought —
"Oh, I say," I exclaimed eagerly, "what is your name, anyway?"
The lustrous eyes opened wide. "Why, you mean to say you don't know? Thought you knew I was named after the governor. And she's named after hers– Frances, from Francis, you know – just the difference in a letter. See?"
"Frances!" I murmured lingeringly. "So your name's Frances?"
"Yes, and hers is Frances – odd, isn't it?"
I assented, but I wished she would drop the other girl – I wasn't interested there, except just because she was.
Her bosom lifted with a sigh. "Don't you think Frances is a peach of a name?"
"It's heavenly!" I whispered. "And I'm glad to hear about your friend, too."
Her sweet face clouded. "Not much of a friend; she don't lose any sleep over me," she commented gloomily. "Then there's Sis double-crossing me with her influence ever since I got hauled up before Prexy at Easter. Sis is awfully prissy."
Her tone was almost savage. I strained incredulously after her meaning.
"Did I understand you to say you were brought up before the president there at Radcliffe?"
"Radcliffe?" Her head shook. "No – Harvard." And I nodded, recalling the affiliation between the two institutions at Cambridge.
I wondered what silly, tyrannical straining of red tape discipline on some one's part had subjected this sensitive, refined girl to the humiliating ordeal of having to appear before the president of the college. Probably for plucking some trashy flower, or, at the worst, looking twice at some sappy freshman acquaintance waving his hand from a frat house.
"By Jove, a devilish shame!" I ejaculated.
"I should say!" Her voice was aggrieved. "All for a measly prize fight."
"Prize fight!" I gasped.
She nodded brightly. "Oh, a modest one, you know – not, of course, a Jeffries-Johnson affair, but I tell you we had them going some for a round and a half. Athletics is my long suit – just you feel those biceps." And with sudden movement she swept upward the wide, silken sleeve, showing a limb like the lost arm of the Venus de what's-its-name.
"Go on – just feel it," she commanded, flexing the arm.
"I – I – " And I gulped and balked.
"Feel it, I tell you!" And I did.
And then I almost fell over, I received such a shock. For my fingers seemed to be clasping, not the soft, rounded contour I beheld, but a great massed protuberance, hard and unyielding as a bunch of dried putty. My fingers could not half span it.
I jerked them away, bewildered.
"Wonderful," I said faintly, and I batted perplexedly at the exquisite, symmetrical arm.
"Oh, that's nothing," she said indifferently, jerking down her sleeve. "I'm a little undertrained now; been putting in all my time on leg work. That's what counts in foot-ball.
"Foot-ball!" I questioned, astonished. "Why, I didn't know – "
"That I was on the team? Surest thing you know; that's why I've got all this mop of hair – comes below my collar – see?"
Her collar, indeed! It was easy to see that, if unbound, it would reach considerably below her waist. But foot-ball! Why, she must mean basket-ball, of course. I opened my mouth to remind her, when she proceeded:
"But I was going to tell you about this prize fight. Well, this fight was just a little one, you know. Purse of eighteen dollars; and we had to chip in afterward with an extra three to get Mug Kelly – that's the Charlestown Pet, you know – to stand the gaff for a second round. Why, he was all in on the count at the end of the first round – what do you think of that?"
"But I say, you know – " I began, but she lifted her hand.
"I know – I know what you're going to say, Dicky; you think we were a bunch of easy marks, that's what you think. But how could we tell what my room-mate was going to do to the Pet – we couldn't, you know."
"Your room-mate!" I exclaimed aghast. "A – an other young lady – in a pugilistic encounter? Oh, I say!"
She chuckled. "G'long; stop your kidding!" And she kicked playfully at me. Then she assumed a mincing air – finger on chin, lips pursed, and eyes rolling upward, you know.
"Yes, another sweet young peacherino – Miss Billings' little room-mate – a beef that hits the beam at about two-sixty – Little Lizzie, you know."
"Lizzie!" I repeated vaguely.
"Oh, say, Dicky, cut it out; let me finish. Well, another minute, and the Pet would have been put to sleep, but just then the coppers nailed us." She added gloomily: "And that's what queered me with Sis. Fierce, ain't it?"
She sighed and her beautiful lashes drooped sadly. By Jove, I was so jolly floored I couldn't manage a word. I knew, of course, that my heart was broken, but it didn't matter. I loved her just the same; I should always love her; and she had tried to let me know she loved me better than any man she had ever met. What the deuce did anything else matter, anyhow? We would marry and go out on a ranch or something of that sort, where the false, polished what-you-call-it of civilization didn't count, and no rude rebuff or sneer of society would ever chill her warm impulsiveness.
She smiled archly. "See here, Dicky, I thought we were going to tell each other the story of our lives. Your turn now; tell me how she looks to you, this girl that came at last – there's always the one girl comes at last, they say, if you wait long enough.