"I have no doubt the new man will try to be sarcastic. They almost always do when they are young like that. We may be able to steel ourselves against weapons of that kind, but the ones who will be hurt are the ones who will begin by glorifying him, not we."
"Oh, no, not we," chimed in Lee. "We are so superior. We can always rise above any weakness. Don't be so dead sure, Janet Ferguson. You are just the one who will want to crawl under the chair some day in sheer mortification."
"You foolish child," replied Janet. "I'm not such a milksop as to care whether a man, especially a young man, makes sarcastic speeches or not. I'd rather he would. I think I'd enjoy them. I hate the meachin' kind. Come into my room, girls, and I will regale you upon olives and chocolate cake."
"Rare combination," said Lee.
"Stay here," said Cordelia, "and we'll make a rarebit."
And Janet stayed.
[CHAPTER VIII]
OFF THE TRACK
THERE was much curiosity on the part of all the girls to see what manner of man the new instructor would prove to be. That he was quiet and shy, a little awkward, not good-looking but with a fine intellectual face, they discovered at their first interview. Later on, Cordelia remarked that she had tested his powers of sarcasm and had not found them wanting. Janet announced that he was positively brilliant when he warmed up to a subject in which he was interested, and Lee declared that he had a voice that she would go out of her way to listen to.
"He certainly has the faculty of making one scare up an appearance of interest in all those dreadful chemical things in the laboratory," said Janet, "and I find myself possessed with a keenness in searching out possible results of ill-smelling experiments which I never supposed I could develop. I may make a brilliant record in chemistry yet, and astonish you all by the time I have concluded the course."