"I don't know about it," said Gay, gloomily. "I'm afraid I'm frozen out altogether."
And not until that moment did Gay realize how highly he valued his popularity.
CHAPTER XXV
THE GIRLS MAKE PEACE
It would be difficult to decide which position was the more enviable, the fallen idol's or that of his erstwhile worshipers. The latter left Rose Cottage swayed by two emotions, disappointment and indignation; in twelve hours disappointment alone was left; in twenty-four hours disappointment was succeeded by a desire to talk the matter over. Not that they were weakening, far from it, but they wanted to look at the case squarely—and they met at Ethel's to look at it!
"I think you are rather hard upon May—I mean Gay," said Ethel. "After praising him to the skies you suddenly turn round and drag him through the dust. He never said he wasn't a boy; all he did was to put on skirts, answer to his sister's name, and act like a boy all the time. We deceived ourselves."
"He did it all under false colors," Lyman said stoutly.
"Didn't you go into the orchard under false colors?" retorted Ethel. "But when you met Gay he overlooked that and made friends with you, and you, at the first chance, desert him."
"You don't understand it, Ethel," began Ned. "It really wasn't the thing, you know."