"Indeed? Then Florence Meiggs was right, wasn't she?"
"Dead right."
Silence for awhile, then she said: "But you mustn't blame me. I did my best, and if we both failed it's proof positive that it has to end."
Another pause, with the whirr of distant machinery breaking the stillness. No speech on either side until Pellams felt that he must say something or the blood in his throat would choke him.
"Do—don't you really know what I wanted you out here for?"
"Perhaps to insult me further. Pellams!" impetuously, "why did you do it?"
"What? flunk?"
"No. Cut those dances."
"You ought to know!"
"Yes; I do know, and your wanting to go to Mayfield was a good, gentlemanly excuse, and I ought to accept it, I suppose. Of course, it shouldn't make any difference to me; you have humiliated me enough already, but you might have considered the other girls."