“That isn’t studying at all; it’s just experimenting. Don’t you like to experiment?”
“Sometimes and with some things!” He sang that out in a way that meant he liked a lark, liked fun, and liked to try out things that gave him any fun in their trying.
But whether intentionally or not, he had admitted to Barbara the general opinion held of her. She was different; Cara called it elusive, Esther would have said it was stand-offish and Louise had been heard to declare that Barbara Hale was just plain “stuck up.”
But Barbara knew. She might have had all of these various personalities but she alone knew just why she was different. And she wasn’t telling Dudley Burke, either. Not that he had an idea of expecting such a confidence, but she had come to Cara’s party and he rejoiced in that fact. She felt sort of tricked into an unpleasant situation.
“It’s too bad,” she remarked presently, “that Nicky’s accident had to take so much time. It must have spoiled all Cara’s fun this afternoon.”
“But it hasn’t mine,” blurted out Dudley. “I’d rather drive around with a boy’s cut-up arm than to stick around——”
“With girls!”
“I didn’t mean that.”
“You—certainly did.”
“All right then, with some girls.”