“The proper caper,” agreed Tavia. “I now feel able to discuss anything from girls to gullies.”
“Girls have it,” declared Nat. “Girls to the bat!”
“Now please don’t waste time,” cautioned Dorothy. “You know what a sudden sort of affair Urania is. She is just as apt to disappear before we have a chance to talk to her, as she is to come over to thank us for her luncheon. I am making a study of her sort of sentiment—I believe it is more solid and more sincere than any we can work up.”
“Hurrah!” called Nat. “Studying sentiment! That’s better than studying French. Because sentiment we have always with us, and French only comes around on the Exams. Dorothy, you are growing older every minute.”
“And you—”
“Handsomer,” he interrupted Tavia. “Tavia I know exactly how you regard me, but don’t let’s give it away all at once.”
Thus thrown entirely off her guard Tavia had nothing better left to do than to chase Nat down to the enclosure, where together they fed the returned birds the crackers that Nat had pilfered from the lunch table.
“Dorothy,” began Tavia, handing out the last crumbs, “certainly is a—”
“Brick!” finished the young man, who had a most satisfactory way of finishing things generally. “Yes, I agree with you. She certainly went some in that cave. Jimminnie! But that was creepy!”
“I should say so! I nearly collapsed on the outside. And now she is going to try to straighten Urania out.”