“You have been nasty in your ways to-day, Dumps,” she said. “Can’t you stay a minute now?”
“No,” I said, “I cannot I must run all the way home; I am late.”
“Nonsense! Well, will you come to tea with us to-night?”
“No, thank you,” I replied; “I have an engagement.”
“Oh, she’ll have heaps of engagements from this out!” said Rita. “Don’t worry her. She’ll be much too grand to speak to us by-and-by.”
“I have an engagement,” I replied. “I am going to tea with Augusta Moore.”
“Oh, with that old frump!”
“She is an exceedingly clever girl.”
“But you and she have nothing in common, Dumps.”
“Yes, we have,” I replied. “Have we not a Professor in common?” I murmured to myself; and then I left the Swans standing discomfited, their faces all agog with longing to tell me something which I would on no account hear from their lips.