“Oh!  Well-people.”

“I don’t know as they’re coming.”

“How delightful!  I don’t mean that; but if they’re not, and if you really knew some jays, and could get me a little glimpse of their Class Day—­”

“I think I could manage it for you.”  He spoke as before, but he looked at her with a mockery in his lips and eyes as intelligent as her own, and the latent change in his mood gave her the sense of being in the presence of a vivid emotion.  She rose in her excitement; she could see that he admired her, and was enjoying her insolence too, in a way, though in a way that she did not think she quite understood; and she had the wish to make him admire her a little more.

She let a light of laughter come into her eyes, of harmless mischief played to an end.  “I don’t deserve your kindness, and I won’t come.  I’ve been very wicked, don’t you think?”

“Not very—­for you,” said Jeff.

“Oh, how good!” she broke out.  “But be frank now!  I’ve offended you.”

“How?  I know I’m a jay, and in the country I’ve got folks.”

“Ah, I see you’re hurt at my joking, and I’m awfully sorry.  I wish there was some way of making you forgive me.  But it couldn’t be that alone,” she went on rather aimlessly as to her words, trusting to his answer for some leading, and willing meanwhile to prolong the situation for the effect in her nerves.  It had been a very dull and tedious day, and she was finding much more than she could have expected in the mingled fear and slight which he inspired her with in such singular measure.  These feminine subtleties of motive are beyond any but the finest natures in the other sex, and perhaps all that Jeff perceived was the note of insincerity in her words.

“Couldn’t be what alone?” he asked.

“What I’ve said,” she ventured, letting her eyes fall; but they were not eyes that fell effectively, and she instantly lifted them again to his.

“You haven’t said anything, and if you’ve thought anything, what have I got to do with that?  I think all sorts of things about people—­or folks, as you call them—­”

“Oh, thank you!  Now you are forgiving me!”

“I think them about you”

“Oh, do sit down and tell me the kind of things you think about me!” Bessie implored, sinking back into her chair.

“You mightn’t like them.”

“But if they would do me good?”

“What should I want to do you good for?”

“That’s true,” sighed Bessie, thoughtfully.

“People—­folks—­”

“Thank you so much!”

“Don’t try to do each other good, unless they’re cranks like Lancaster, or bores like Mrs. Bevidge—­”

“You belong to the analytical school of Seniors!  Go on!”

“That’s all,” said Jeff.

“And you don’t think I’ve tried to do you good?”

He laughed.  Her comedy was delicious to him.  He had never found, anybody so amusing; he almost respected her for it.