“Running the steam-roller, outside.” The face of the girl melted into lovely and irrepressible mirth.
“Ah! That explains much. But not all. What is your part in this?”
“You have seen it.” She nodded backward toward the studio.
“Not that. As a woman? What have you been doing to that boy to make him what he is?”
The girl took her soft lip grievously between her teeth for a moment before answering. “I've been playing my child's tricks with a real man—and now I'm being sorry.”
“And paying for it?”
The Bonnie Lassie's head drooped.
“Is he paying for it, too?”
“No.”
“No? Well, when I played a little surprise on him and kissed him under the mistletoe, I thought that tall and massive youth was going to faint away like a school-miss in my supporting arms, until he saw who it was. What do you suppose his expectations—”