"Humph," sniffed Cap. "I'll bet she was afraid I hadn't said anything to you about it, and she wouldn't give herself away as long as you didn't kick up a row. Now I suppose she expects me to take her."
"That's where she was keen, all right; she never breathed a word about you; only made me feel like two-bits in a fog for having turned her down."
"If I had been you I would have roasted her right there, fired the whole string at her."
This was the point for which the jilted man had come into Cap's room.
"No," said he, "you said you wouldn't take her either, and I thought that would punish her better than having any scene with me. She'll know I have had my innings."
This took Smith where he lived, but he put on a cheerful front, perforce:
"Well, I'll crawl gracefully out of it, to-morrow," said he. "I suppose she'll be hopping when she thinks it over."
Perkins went up to his room satisfied.
When Cap Smith caught Miss Arnold at the post-office, he began to find that it was easier to plan a graceful crawling out than to execute the movement.
"I shall have to take back what I said yesterday about the cotillion," he began, cleverly, guiding her toward Roble, "because, you see, it wouldn't be just square to Ted, would it? He might feel hurt, and I wouldn't have that. We must have six dances, though, anyway."