He said we were not as agreable as we might be, so he picked up a magazine and looked at the Automobile advertizments.

“I can’t aford a car,” he said.  “Don’t listen to me, either of you.  I’m only talking to myself.  But I like to read the ads.  Hello, here’s a snappy one for five hundred and fifty.  Let me see.  If I gave up a couple of Clubs, and smokeing, and flours to debutantes—­except Barbara, because I intend to buy every pozy in town when she comes out—­I might——­”

“Carter,” I said, “will you let me see that ad?”

Now the reason I had asked for it was this:  in the book the Girl Detective had a small but powerful car, and she could do anything with it, even going up the Court House steps once in it and interupting a trial at the criticle moment.

But I did not, at that time, expect to more than wish for such a vehical.  How pleasant, my heart said, to have a car holding to, and since there was to be no bathing, et cetera, and I was not allowed a horse in the country, except my old pony and the basket faeton, to ramble through the lanes with a choice Spirit, and talk about ourselves mostly, with a sprinkling of other subjects!

Five hundred and fifty from nine hundred and forty-five leaves three hundred and forty-five.  But I need few garments at school, wearing mostly unaforms of blue serge with one party frock for Friday nights and receptions to Lecturers and Members of the Board.  And besides, to own a machine would mean less carfare and no shoes to speak of, because of not walking.

Jane Raleigh came in about then and I took her upstairs and closed the door.

“Jane,” I said, “I want your advise.  And be honest, because it’s a serious matter.”

“If it’s Tommy Gray,” she said, in a contemptable manner, “don’t.”

How could I know, as revealed later, that Jane had gone on a Diet since yesterday, owing to a certain remark, and had had nothing but an apple all day?  I could not.  I therfore stared at her steadily and observed: 

“I shall never ask for advise in matters of the Heart.  There I draw the line.”

However, she had seen some caromels on my table, and suddenly burst into emotion.  I was worried, not knowing the trouble and fearing that Jane was in love with Tom.  It was a terrable thought, for which should I do?  Hold on to him and let her suffer, or remember our long years of intimacy and give him up to her?

Should I or should I not remove his Frat pin?

However, I was not called upon to renunciate anything.  In the midst of my dispair Jane asked for a Sandwitch and thus releived my mind.  I got her some cake and a bottle of cream from the pantrey and she became more normle.  She swore she had never cared for Tom, he being not her style, as she had never loved any one who had not black eyes.

“Nothing else matters, Bab,” she said, holding out the Sandwitch in a dramatic way.  “I see but his eyes.  If they are black, they go through me like a knife.”