The girls looked at each other, and then turned their backs squarely on the presuming fellow, their action saying as plainly as words that they did not care to have anything to do with him.
Frank Merriwell, coming along, saw all this, and it gave him a feeling of satisfaction.
But Dunton was not to be turned down thus easily.
“I am one of the actors,” he purred, in a manner intended to be very captivating. “That is my picture in the upper right-hand corner.”
The girls looked at each other again, and they smiled a bit at the conceit of the fellow.
Dunton misinterpreted the smile to mean that they were softening toward him, and he continued, glibly:
“I have a disagreeable part to-night, and you will not see me at my best if you come. I am the villain.”
One of the girls gave him a look, and then murmured to the other:
“Too soft to be a villain.”
Then both giggled, as young girls will.