"Where is thy feast, oh Barmecide?" cried another.
"What's the matter with 1905?" shouted a voice above the rest and the answer came: "She's all right!"
"It was their last chance of the year," said Lee to a discomfited freshman who stopped her to pour out her grievance as she left the hall. "I'd almost be willing to pay for the supper for the sake of seeing the fun." This, however, was small satisfaction to the disappointed freshman.
The result of the trick was more far-reaching to Janet than she could foresee, as after having paid her debt of contrition to Lillie Starr, that young woman attached herself so ardently to the senior as to give Janet some trouble. Yet she was too conscious of her treachery to the girl to repel her advances and finally grew to accept her innocent admiration with a patience that brought down jeers from Lee.
"How you can let that foolish little snip follow you about and hang on your neck in the way she does is more than I can see," said Lee.
"I must," Janet told her. "I don't dare to tell her that I did not select her from the whole class because of her attractions as an individual, but because of her gullible qualities, and I must pay the penalty of my indiscretion and deceit."
"Deceit, nonsense! As if any girl would be so namby-pamby as to bear a grudge in a matter of that kind. Why, it was perfectly legitimate under the circumstances, and no more than the rest of us did. The freshmen shouldn't have been so boastful if they wanted to keep the sophomores from showing their spirit."
"I can't help it; it weighs on my conscience," said Janet, "and some day in a moment of remorse, I shall tell her the whole truth and allow her to despise me all she wants to."
"She won't; I can tell you that. She will admire you for your cleverness and will comfort herself by remembering that you have encouraged her devoted attentions ever since, so she will believe you are fond of her in spite of anything you may say."
"Well, I am fond of her," Janet confessed. "She is frank and innocent and well-meaning."