“Well, I’m surprised; I confess that I am amazed!” exclaimed Meadowcroft. He hadn’t looked at the girl; but a glance told one that she would have been tall for a girl of sixteen, and large for any age whatever. Her nickname seemed to suggest a sort of jovial coarseness, but he had particular sympathy for anyone who was physically conspicuous.
“And she doesn’t mind being called—Bouncing Bet?” he asked, with reluctance to repeat the phrase.
“O no, sir,” replied Tommy promptly, “you see her name’s Betty—or really Betsey. Her father sometimes calls her Betsey. And she’s used to it, for she’s always been big, and everybody calls her Bouncing Bet—not exactly right out to her face, you know, and yet not behind her back.”
“Perhaps she’s rather proud of her size?” suggested Meadowcroft, rather hoping that such was the case.
“Proud of it! O gee! she just hates it. Why, she just—just—abominates and despises being so big!” cried Tommy, reaching for the piano stool in his excitement and twirling it madly. Then remembering how that action annoyed his mother, he removed the temptation by changing his seat again.
“You see she never has any fun at all, and never has had except what she gets out of my magic,” he added.
“If she hates being big, Tommy, believe me she minds that nickname,” Meadowcroft declared with unusual emphasis. “When I was at boarding-school I learned by chance that the other boys referred to me as Hoplite Meadowcroft. You won’t get the full significance of that until you go to the high school and study Greek, but perhaps you may guess something of what I felt, for I should really hate to tell you how that nickname hurt me, or——” He paused. “I daresay hers hurts Miss Betty more,” he added.
Tommy’s eyes fell on his spotted hands. “Fat’s—different,” he said in a low voice.
“And so are girls. They take things harder than we men, Tommy,” returned the other so earnestly that Tommy winked fast and got into another chair.
He was silent for a little, then began to speak of a trick in magic he was eager to perform, which involved as a beginning getting the bottom out of a glass bottle.