“Not very much,” admitted Miss Hastings. “I—I’ve had to talk with my handkerthief in front of my mouth and I am not thure that they know what I have thaid. Maybe they think I’ve got the flu,” and she began to laugh, herself, now.
“That’s right! Cheer up,” said Neale, who would be friendly with the most self-conscious or bashful person in existence, and found that Miss Hastings was pretty human after all.
He told her about his “Caruso” and the dancing team from the stokehole. Nalbro Hastings seized upon the originality of the idea which Ruth Kenway had expressed.
“And there are two little girlth—Here they come now,” said Miss Hastings. “I heard them thinging—the cuteth little thingth.”
“Why, that’s Tess and Dot Kenway,” declared Neale, in surprise.
“Call them over, pleath,” commanded the Back Bay girl. “Athk them to thing that thong about ‘Dooley.’”
“That’s a new one on me,” Neale declared, beckoning to Tess and Dot. “What’s all this about the new song you’ve learned?” he asked the sisters, when they came near. “This is Miss Hastings, Tess and Dot. You want to know her. She’s a nice girl, only she’s made a vow that she won’t speak till she gets to St. Sergius and the parcel post catches up to us.”
“Oh, Mithter O’Neil!” murmured the Back Bay girl.
“She speaks some,” said Tess curiously.
“Let’s hear the song—and where did you learn it?” Neale said.