f
trouble with Perkins did not worry her in the least. Perkins had been
rather a convenience, and to lead the cotillion with Jack Smith was a
delight that entirely divested the other man of all importance. The
rehearsal went through with a dash; Lillian was all animation and
witchery, and the love-scene was perfectly acted, though Ted Perkins sat
glowering in the privileged audience. Cap Smith took his high note with
a tenderness of voice and gesture that moved Connor, the leader (he was
also stage-manager and chief electrician), to call out, "Good boy, Cap,"
and to shake his carefully untrimmed hair in approval.

After rehearsal, the tenor slipped away just as Perkins, with an
artificial smile, approached Lillian.

The Sophomore was in bed when Perkins came into his room.

"What did you do about it?" Cap asked, to start things.

"I simply said I wanted to be excused from taking her to the cotillion."

"What reason did you give?"

"None."

"But you had to give some explanation."

"She didn't ask for any. She guessed it, probably."

"What did she say? Try to smooth it over?"

"No, nothing, except that she was sorry, and that she would have liked
to go with me."

"Humph," sniffed Cap. "I'll bet she was afraid I hadn't said anything to
you about it, and she wouldn't give herself away as long as you didn't
kick up a row. Now I suppose she expects me to take her."

"That's where she was keen, all right; she never breathed a word about
you; only made me feel like two-bits in a fog for having turned her
down."

"If I had been you I would have roasted her right there, fired the whole
string at her."

This was the point for which the jilted man had come into Cap's room.

"No," said he, "you said you wouldn't take her either, and I thought
that would punish her better than having any scene with me. She'll know
I have had my innings."

This took Smith where he lived, but he put on a cheerful front,
perforce:

"Well, I'll crawl gracefully out of it, to-morrow," said he. "I suppose
she'll be hopping when she thinks it over."

Perkins went up to his room satisfied.

When Cap Smith caught Miss Arnold at the post-office, he began to find
that it was easier to plan a graceful crawling out than to execute the
movement.

"I shall have to take back what I said yesterday about the cotillion,"
he began, cleverly, guiding her toward Roble, "because, you see, it
wouldn't be just square to Ted, would it? He might feel