“Oh, don’t give us any of that!” said Harry. “It won’t go with this crowd!”
“I should say nit!” growled Bruce good-naturedly. “Own right up like a man. What’s her name? Is she an artist’s model? Oh, I’ll bet you’ve been over in the Quarter!”
“And only away from Elsie Bellwood such a short time!” said Diamond, more in reproof than in jest. “I did not think it of you, Frank!”
Frank laughed pleasantly.
“My dear boys,” he said, “you are off your trolleys.”
“Now, don’t tell us there isn’t a girl in it!” shouted Rattleton, flinging down his cards, and rising to his feet. “I have always regarded you as the soul of veracity, and I do not wish to lose faith in you now.”
“Remember, my dear boy,” said Browning in a fatherly way, “that you are in Paris—naughty Paris. You must have a care not to lose your veracity along with your other good qualities.”
“It is the second evening you have been out alone,” said Harry. “You are not in the habit of meandering around all by yourself in a strange city. You are a person who enjoys company.”
“I’m afraid he’s had company enough,” said Diamond soberly.
Now, when Frank thought of what had actually happened, and what his friends seemed to imagine had happened, he sat down and laughed most heartily.