"I mean to go on the lake and try to catch a trout."
"Then, I hope you'll let me come. You'll want somebody to row the boat and use the landing-net."
"The hotel guide will row and I doubt if we'll need the landing-net," Laura replied and gave him a level glance. "Besides, I shall return for lunch and I rather think you ought to go for a long climb. When I came out, you looked moody and slack."
Jimmy colored. Although he was embarrassed, to know Laura had bothered to remark his moodiness was flattering; the strange thing was, when she crossed the veranda he had not thought she saw him. Jimmy was raw, but not altogether a fool. He knew Laura did not mean him to go with her to the lake.
"Oh, well," he said. "When one loafs about, one does get slack."
"You are young and ought not to loaf."
"I imagine I'm a little older than you," Jimmy rejoined with a twinkle.
Laura let it go. As a rule, she did not take the obvious line, and although she knew much Jimmy did not, she said, "Are you old enough to play cards with Jackson and Deering?"
"One must pay for all one gets, and, in a sense, I get much from men like that," Jimmy replied. "There's something one likes about Jackson, and Deering's a very good sort."
"Are you ambitious to be Deering's sort?" Laura asked.