“I don’t,” denied Dorothy, hotly. “I’m only ashamed that we have been seen with him. And it is my fault.”
“I’d like to know why?”
“It was unnecessary for us to have become so friendly with him just because he did us a favor.”
“Yes—but——”
“It was I. I did it,” said Dorothy, almost in tears. “We should never allow ourselves to become acquainted with strangers in any such way. Now you see what it means, Tavia. It is not your fault—it is mine. But it should teach you a lesson as well as me.”
“Goodness!” said the startled Tavia. “I don’t see that it is anything very terrible. The fellow is really nothing to us.”
“But people having seen us with him—and then seeing him with that common-acting girl——”
“Pooh! what do we care?” repeated Tavia. “Garry Knapp is nothing to us, and never would be.”
Dorothy said not another word, but turned quickly away from her friend. She was very quiet while they made ready for their shopping trip, and Tavia could not arouse her.
Careless and unobservant as Tavia was, anything seriously the matter with her chum always influenced her. She gradually “simmered down” herself, and when they started forth from their rooms both girls were morose.