"I hope you can be persuaded, Miss Minturn. It will give me great pleasure to see you safely home."
Katherine knew it would never do. It would be a rank violation of the rules, which explicitly stated that no young lady could receive attention from young men without permission direct from the principal, on penalty of expulsion.
"Thank you, Mr. Willard; but I think we will take a car," she courteously but decidedly replied.
"Oh, come now, Katharine, don't be disobliging," Sadie here interposed; "there can be no harm in our walking quietly back to the seminary together. Ned—er—Mr. Willard has met Prof. Seabrook, and it will be all right."
The slip which revealed Mr. Willard's first name, and also betrayed something of the intimacy which existed between the young couple, appalled Katherine, and confirmed her suspicions that the meeting had been previously planned, and drove her to radical measures.
She turned politely to the young man and observed:
"Mr. Willard, if we had Prof. Seabrook's permission, no doubt the walk would be very enjoyable; but since we have not, and the rules are explicit, I am sure you will appreciate our position and excuse us. There is our car. Will you kindly signal for us?"
Of course there was nothing for the gentleman to do but obey, which he did with an icy:
"Certainly, Miss Minturn, and pray pardon my intrusion."
They were obliged to wait a moment for some people to alight, and during the delay Katherine heard him say in an aside to her roommate: