w it he was crossing the campus, actually walking,
in full view of the school, at the side of Miss McCarty.

Her unconsciousness was paralyzing, perfectly paralyzing! Dink,
struggling for a word in the vast desert of his brain, was overwhelmed
with the ease with which his companion ran on. He stole a glance under
the floating azure veil and decided, from the way the brilliant blue
parasol swung from her hand, that she must be a woman of the
world--thirty, at least.

He extracted his hands precipitately from the trousers pockets in
which they had been plunged and buttoned the last button of his coat.
Somehow, his hands seemed to wander all over his anatomy, like jibs
that had broken loose. He tried to clasp them behind his back, like
the Doctor, or to insert one between the first and second button of
his coat, the characteristic pose of the great Corsican, according to
his history. For a moment he found relief by slipping them, English
fashion, into his coat pockets; but at the thought of being detected
thus by the Tennessee Shad he withdrew them as though he had struck a
hornet's nest.

The school, meanwhile, had gamboled past, all snickering, of course,
at his predicament. In this state of utter misery he arrived at last
at the field, where, to his amazement, quite a group of Fifth-Formers
came up and surrounded Miss McCarty, chattering in the most
bewildering manner. Dink seized the opportunity to drop back, draw a
long sigh, reach madly behind for his necktie, which had climbed
perilously near the edge of his collar, and shoot back his cuffs. He
saw the Tennessee Shad and Dennis de Boru grinning at him from the
crowd, and showed them his fist with a threatening gesture.

Then the game began and he was seated by Miss McCarty, unutterably
relieved that the tension of the contest had diverted the entire
attention of the school from his particular sufferings.

The excitement of the play for the first time gave him an opportunity
to study his companion. His first estimate was undoubtedly correct;
she was plainly a woman of the world. No one else could sit at such
perfect ease, the cynosure of so many eyes. Her dress was some
wonderful creation, from Paris, no doubt, that rustled with an
alluring sound and gave forth a pleasant perfume.

The more he looked the more his eye approved. She was quite
unusual--quite. She had style--a very impressive style. He had never
before remembered any one who held herself quite so