"Janet Ferguson, I don't believe it."
"Fact. It is way at the other end of town, and I am going to try the experiment of reading things or telling them to dirty little hoodlums. What shall I wear, Ted? They must be impressed, you know, by my appearance. Looks count for a good deal in matters of this kind."
"You are the biggest fraud, Janet. What is the use of pretending? You know your wanting to look your best is not upon the ragamuffins' account."
"On what then?"
"Mr. Evans's."
"Teddy Waite, it isn't so. Now you'll make me put on that horrid lilac hat that I bought from Louise Baker and that always makes me look as black as an Indian. I was going to wear the blue one."
"I wasn't aware that my opinion had such weight," said Teddy. "By all means wear the blue if you want to impress—the children."
And Janet meekly remarked that she believed she would.
Teddy looked at her quizzically when she came back. "Well," she said, "was the blue hat sufficiently effective?"
Janet flushed ever so slightly. "Oh yes," she returned lightly, "I think the hoodlums were quite overpowered by my magnificence."