Chester was not half so long getting the water as Miss Smith was drinking it. She sipped and talked, and sipped and talked again, in her most dangerously fascinating manner, until he was on the point of leaving her to digest the beverage alone.
"Theems to me you're in a terrific hurry," she cried. "I hope you an't afraid of me. Good-neth! I am as harmleth as a kitten."
Miss Smith showed her disagreeable teeth, and shook her consumptive curls, with great self-satisfaction. When Chester confessed that he was afraid of her, she declared herself "infinitely amathed."
"But I don't believe it. Thomebody in the parlor has a magnetic influence over you," she said, archly. "Now, confeth!"
On returning to the sitting-room, they found that two or three other young ladies had followed them from the parlor.
"What a magnet thomebody is!" remarked Miss Smith. "I wonder who it can be."
"I should think you might tell, since you were the first to be attracted from the parlor," remarked Miss Julia Keller.
"Oh, I came for a glath of water." Miss Smith shook her curls again, and turned to Father Brighthopes. "I am ecthethively delighted to make your acquaintanth, thir, for I am immenthly fond of minithters."
The old man smiled indulgently, and replied that he thought younger clergymen than himself might please her best.
"Young or old, it makes no differenth," said she. "Our minithter is a delightfully fathinating man, and he is only twenty-five."