“All right, and remember that I have to see the Lake every day. Oh, I just dread going across Michigan boulevard again. I didn’t know that there were so many machines in the world as there are in Chicago!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll see you safely over. It’s somewhat worse than our little town at Commencement time, isn’t it?”
“Yes. To think that I thought that congestion!”
Wherever they went Dick noticed that Shirley drew the eyes of people. That, to be sure, was not so unusual, for even at home, Shirley was considered a very pretty girl. But there was a look almost like one of recognition that he noticed several times. Once, on the top of a ’bus, as they stood, undecided, in the aisle because there were no two seats together, a gentleman rose from an aisle seat, next to which another was vacant. Smiling at Shirley and tipping his hat, he moved to where a single seat gave him room and made it possible for Shirley and Dick to sit together. Shirley, standing with that air of detached poise which was natural to her, thought it only a pleasant courtesy, smiled a little in return and took the inside seat.
Dick glanced after the gentleman. “That chap thinks that he knows you, Shirley,” he said.
“Oh, no; he couldn’t,” replied Shirley, “unless he is some graduate of our school.”
“That might be,” Dick assented. “We meet ’em everywhere.”
But the next encounter puzzled Shirley a little. She and Dick had dropped into a very attractive cafeteria for lunch, on one of their trips downtown. After they had finished their lunch Shirley moved toward the door, standing aside, out of the way of people, while Dick was paying for their checks.
While Shirley stood there, interested in the scene, but not feeling a little apart from it, a short, slim little person came hurrying past, and stopped short upon seeing her. “Hello!” she said. “Seeing how the hoi polloi do it? I thought you had gone for the summer. Passed the house today and it’s all shut up. Nice looking young man you are with. Have a good time for me. Little Ollie has to earn her wages now. So long.”
Shirley stood smiling during this address, delivered rapidly, for the girl seemed to be in a great hurry. There was no chance to tell her that she must be mistaken, though Shirley’s evident surprise at being addressed might have suggested it, Shirley thought afterward.