“Yes, I do. I love Italian cooking.” Jewel’s sober face lightened.
“Fine business.” Leslie whisked the little girl into her coat before she had time to change her mind, dropping her small felt hat gently on the curly black head.
They were presently seated at an alcove table of the quaint inn, ordering a full Italian dinner that began with Baretti’s special snappy relish and would end with Spumoni ice cream and delicious Italian cake. It was still early for the usual nightly throng of college diners at the inn. Besides Leslie and Jewel the tables showed not more than a sprinkling of students, none of whom either girl knew other than by sight. They had just begun their dessert when a party of students entered the restaurant to an accompanying ripple of noise and laughter.
“Oh.” Jewel’s dessert spoon struck her plate with a nervous little clang as she recognized in the entrants a part of Stephanie Norris’s pals, together with Mildred Ferguson. Stephanie, however, was not among them.
They seated themselves at a not far distant table in a laughing flutter, their eyes busily roving the great room.
“I’ve finished my dessert,” Jewel’s face had suddenly lost its brightness. “Let’s go, Leslie,” she entreated.
“We will soon,” Leslie nodded, “but we are not going to run away because of that crowd. I refuse to be cheated of my coffee, and you haven’t yet taken a sip of yours.”
“I don’t want it. I’d rather go. Those girls—you don’t understand,” she declared sadly. “They—that Miss Ferguson—she has said hateful things about me. If we stay she will begin talking about me, and the others will stare at me, and laugh among themselves. I can’t bear it.” Her red underlip had begun to tremble.
“Steady, kid. Pay no attention to them.” Leslie sent a coolly appraising glance at the tableful of girls that was not without its effect. The staring process had already covertly begun, but more than one pair of eyes wavered from the challenging inquiry of her black eyes. The group turned attention to the ordering of their dinner with a promptness that brought the semblance of a grim smile to Leslie’s lips.
“What has Miss Ferguson been saying about you?” was Leslie’s first question, when ten minutes later, the two girls had stepped out into the soft fall darkness.