“Well, then we’ll go feed the gold-fish
in the Japanese gardens,— they eat on Sundays,
the poor things! Nobody ever converted them.”
“Look here, Susan!” he exclaimed, suddenly
aroused. “Are you trying to throw me down?
Well, of all gall!”
Susan’s heart began to thump.
“Well, then, shall I get tickets for Monday
night?”
“Look here, Susan! Somebody’s been
stuffing you, I can see it! Was it Auntie?
Come on, now, what’s the matter, all of a sudden?”
“There’s nothing sudden about it,”
Susan said, with dignity, “but Auntie does think
that I go about with you a good deal—–”
Peter was silent. Susan, stealing a glance at
his face, saw that it was very red.
“Oh, I love that! I’m crazy about
it!” he said, grinning. Then, with sudden
masterfulness, “That’s all rot!
I’m coming for you on Sunday, and we’ll
go feed the fishes!”
And he was gone. Susan ate her lunch very thoughtfully,
satisfied on the whole with the first application
of the new plan.
On Sunday afternoon Mr. Coleman duly presented himself
at the boarding-house, but he was accompanied by Miss
Fox, to whom Susan, who saw her occasionally at the
Saunders’, had taken a vague dislike, and by
a Mr. Horace Carter, fat, sleepy, and slightly bald
at twenty-six.
“I brought ’em along to pacify Auntie,”
said Peter on the car.
Susan made a little grimace.
“You don’t like Con? Oh, she’s
loads of sport!” he assured her. “And
you’ll like Carter, too, he’s loads of
fun!”
But Susan liked nobody and nothing that day.
It was a failure from beginning to end. The sky
was overcast, gloomy. Not a leaf stirred on the
dripping trees, in the silent Park, fog filled all
the little canons. There were very few children
on the merry-go-rounds, or in the swings, and very
few pleasure-seekers in the museum and the conservatories.
Miss Fox was quite comfortable in white furs, but
Susan felt chilly. She tried to strike a human
spark from Mr. Carter, but failed. Attempts at
a general conversation also fell flat.
They listened to the band for a little while, but
it was too cold to sit still very long, and when Peter
proposed tea at the Occidental, Susan visibly brightened.
But the shamed color rose in her face when Miss Fox
languidly assured him that if he wanted her mother
to scalp her, well and good; if not, he would please
not mention tea downtown.
She added that Mama was having a tea herself to-day,
or she would ask them all to come home with her.
This put Susan in an uncomfortable position of which
she had to make the best.
“If it wasn’t for an assorted bunch of
boarders,” said Susan, “I would ask you
all to our house.”
Miss Fox eyed her curiously a moment, then spoke to
Peter.
“Well, do let’s do something, Peter!
Let’s go to the Japanese garden.”
