“Yes—why?”
He burst into a sudden shout of laughter and waved his cap around his head. I thought for an instant, with a sudden leap of the heart, that he was going to lose his balance and fall; but he caught a branch above his head and saved himself.
“I think I’ll come down,” he said, when he had regained his breath; and he calmly jumped down on our side of the wall. Then he looked at me, grinning broadly. “Please don’t believe all Mr. Chester tells you about me,” he said. “He’s prejudiced.”
“I certainly shall believe what he tells me,” I retorted.
“All the same, I’m glad you’re going to dinner there to-night,” he added, grinning still more broadly.
“Why?” I demanded.
“No matter,” he said. “No matter,” and he looked at me, still laughing.
I felt my cheeks burning, for I could never bear to be laughed at, especially by a boy. Boys are so dense.
“Very well,” I said, and turning on my heel, I marched away, head in air.
But I could hear him laughing till I got clear across the garden to the opposite hedge. I thought it very rude. Perhaps if he had not kept on laughing, I might have stopped before I got so far away. At last, when I stole a glance over my shoulder toward the wall, he was gone.