"Why, Sunny's nothing but a child. It's absurd to refer to her as a woman, and if Miss Falconer broke with me for a little thing like that, I'd take my medicine I suppose."
"You are prepared, then, to break an engagement that has the most hearty approval of your parents, because of a quixotic impulse toward one you say is a child, but, young man, I would have you reflect upon the consequences to the child. Your kindness would act as a boomerang upon Sunny."
"What in the world do you mean?"
"I mean that Sunny is emphatically not a child. She was fifteen years old the other day. That is an exceedingly delicate period in a girl's life. We must leave the bloom upon the rose. It is a sensitive period in the life of a girl."
A long silence, and then Jerry:
"Right-oh! It's good-bye to Sunny!"
He turned on his heel and strode out to the hall. Professor Barrowes heard him calling to the girl upstairs in the cheeriest tone.
"Hi! up there, Sunny! Come on down, you little rascal. Aren't you going to say bye-bye to your best friend?"
Sunny came slowly down the stairs. At the foot, in the shadows of the hall she looked up at Jerry.