"Oh, nothing," said Phyllis. "Have you had any tea?"
"I don't want any tea, thank you. I wish you wouldn't bother. Go down and have your own."
"Guess I shall bring it up here instead, and then we can talk," said Phyllis. In about ten minutes she returned, very much out of breath, with a large tray.
Katharine looked up and frowned. "I said I didn't want any," she said crossly. However, she added that she believed there was some shortbread on the book-case, which Phyllis at once annexed; and her temper began slowly to improve.
"Phyllis," she asked abruptly, after a long pause, "what do you think of men?"
"That they are luxuries," returned Phyllis, without hesitation. "If you've nothing to do all day but to play about, you can afford to have a man or two around you; but if you're busy, you can't do with them, anyhow."
"Why not?" demanded Katharine. "Don't you think they help one along, rather?"
"Not a bit of it! First, they draw you on, because you seem to hold off; and then, when you begin to warm up, they come down with a quencher, and you feel you've been a sight too bold. And all that kind of thing is distracting; and it affects your work after a time."
"But surely," said Katharine, "a girl can have a man for a friend without going through all that!"
"Don't believe in it; never did; it doesn't work."