“Mr. Cameron, would you please take my book for me?”
“Come on, boys!” said Perkins, with his never failing laugh. “I guess we're not in this.”
“Take your medicine, Perkins,” laughed one of his friends.
“Yes, I'll take it all right,” replied Perkins. But the laugh could not conceal the shake of passion in his voice. “It will work, too, you bet!”
So saying, he strode off into the gathering gloom followed by his friends.
“Come along, Mr. Cameron,” said Mandy with a silly giggle. “I guess we don't need them fellows. They can't fool us, can they?”
Her manner, her speech, her laugh rudely dissipated all Cameron's new feeling towards her. The whole episode filled him only with disgust and annoyance.
“Come, then,” he said, almost roughly. “We shall need to hurry, for there is a storm coming up.”
Mandy glanced at the gathering clouds.
“My goodness!” she cried; “it's comin' up fast. My! I hate to git my clothes wet.” And off she set at a rapid pace, keeping abreast of her companion and making gay but elephantine attempts at sprightly conversation. Before Cameron's unsympathetic silence, however, all her sprightly attempts came to abject failure.