"Oh, what an awful boy," exclaimed Alexia, raising her long hands in horror, "to get off this sofa, when Polly Pepper told you to sit here."
"She didn't either; she said Joel must," corrected Larry, defiantly. "So there, now, Alexia Rhys!"
"Well, you know she meant you," said Alexia, "only she didn't exactly like to make you, 'cause you don't live here."
"Well, Joel's gone, and I'm not going back," declared Larry, flatly, and regarding the sofa with anything but pleasure.
"Well, that's dreadfully mean," said Alexia, leaning back composedly to look him all over, "to run away, now Joel's gone. He'd expect you to stay here, of course."
To do anything that Joel would not expect not fitting into Larry's ideas, he slipped back into his place again, crowding up against the sofa arm as closely as possible.
"Now tell me all about it," said Alexia, happily, and leaning forward to catch every word.
"All about what?" said Larry, sourly.
"Why, all about just everything, you stupid boy; what you and Joel have been up to, and the whole thing," said Alexia, hungrily.
"There hasn't been any whole thing," said Larry, gloomily, and very much wishing he had "been up to something" that had yielded at least a little bit of fun.