“Go on and laugh! Well, so we stayed there quite a while, but before we left she got kind of more like everyday, you know, the way people do. It was half-past nine when we walked back in town, and I was commencin' to feel kind of hungry, so I asked her if she wasn't, and she sort of laughed and seemed to be ashamed of it, as if it were a disgrace or something, but she said she guessed she was; so I left her by that hedge of lilacs near the observatory and went on over to the 'Teria and the fruit store, and got some stuffed eggs and olives and half-a-dozen peanut butter sandwiches and a box o' strawberries--kind of girl-food, you know--and went on back there, and we ate the stuff up. So then she said she was afraid she'd taken me away from my dinner and made me a lot of trouble, and so on, and she was sorry, and she told me good-night--” “What did you say then?” “Noth-- Oh, shut up! So then she skipped out to her Dorm, and I came on home.” “When did you see her next, Ramsey?” “I haven't seen her next,” said Ramsey. “I haven't seen her at all--not to speak to. I saw her on Main Street twice since then, but both times she was with some other girls, and they were across the street, and I couldn't tell if she was lookin' at me--I kind of thought not--so I thought it might look sort o' nutty to bow to her if she wasn't, so I didn't.” “And you didn't tell her you wouldn't be one of the ones to help her with her pacifism and anti-war stuff and all that?” “No. I started to, but-- Shut up!” Fred sat up, giggling. “So she thinks you _will_ help her. You didn't say anything at all, and she must think that means she converted you. Why didn't you speak up?” “Well, _I_ wouldn't argue with her,” said Ramsey. Then, after a silence, he seemed to be in need of sympathetic comprehension. “It _was_ kind o' funny, though, wasn't it?” he said, appealingly. “What was?” “The whole business.” “What 'whole bus'--” “Oh, get out! Her stoppin' me, and me goin' pokin' along with her, and her--well, her crying and everything, and me being around with her while she felt so upset, I mean. It seems--well, it does seem kind o' funny to me.” “Why does it?” Fred inquired, preserving his gravity. “Why should it seem funny to you?”