"She knows old Kolb, after all," exclaimed Jimmy, in astonishment.
"She knows all the musical people that were ever born, I believe," snapped out Dolly; "stiff as she is, she's just crazy over musical folks. But did you ever see anybody so stiff and offish as she was?"
"I never saw anybody so persistent as you were, Dolly; you fairly pushed her into stiffness and offishness. You asked her to help in the musicale as if it would be simply a privilege for her, and then, when anybody could see with half an eye she didn't want to come and didn't mean to come, you went at her in the same way about coming to you, whipping out that tablet with a 'Now, then, give an account of yourself' air that was—that was—" But Jimmy could find no words to express adequately his feelings on this point, and finished up suddenly in his wrath and disappointment, "Dolly, you are the biggest bully I ever met. If you were a boy amongst boys, you'd get a licking!"
"Children, children, stop quarrelling, right here in public!" admonished Mrs. Dering, in a low, shocked tone.
"'Tisn't me that's quarrelling," said Dolly, regardless of grammar and in a tearful sniffle. "Jimmy's always setting me up to do things for him, and then he's al-al-always finding fault with the way I do 'em," Dolly went on, in a still more tearful sniffle.
"Setting you up to do things for him? What did he set you up to do now?" asked her aunt.
"To introduce him to Hope. He wanted to know her, he wanted to hear her play; and I"—sniff, sniff, sniff—"I—"
"Well, there, never mind; tell me when we get into the carriage," broke in Mrs. Dering, mindful of the proprieties, as she saw several persons observing Dolly.
"Yes, don't cry on the street,—you might get taken up for a nuisance, Dol; a policeman's got his eye on you now," growled Jimmy, with a savage little grin. Dolly had a queer, childish way of accepting everything seriously sometimes; and the startled seriousness of her face at this was too much for Jimmy's gravity, and he burst into a fit of laughter that cleared the atmosphere not a little, and made Dolly herself forget to sniffle. She forgot also to air her grievance against Jimmy, when, as they were seated in the carriage, her aunt said animatedly,—
"Benham—I wonder if this girl is the daughter of a Mr. and Mrs. Benham I met when I was in Paris."