"Oh, you _don't_?" Could tell how I had touched her by her expression, don't you know; and she fell to looking at me the queerest way. "And would you mind telling me who the 'others' are?" I eyed her gloomily, sympathetically. As _if_ she didn't know already! "Well--oh, dash it, my mind has been filled with--er--just anything!" I began cautiously. "_I_ know,"--she murmured it as if to herself--"one can _see_ that!" And she bit her lip. "In the first place, you know"--and there I pulled up. No, dash it, I wasn't going to say a jolly word about poor Jack--no, _sir_! But then, about the other one--well, _she_ was just a treacherous snake in the what's-its-name, and she ought to be exposed. By Jove, she should be! "It's the frump, you know," I said indignantly. "The--the _what_?" Her pretty teeth flashed like the keyboards of a tiny organ--you could even hear a little gurgly, musical quiver somewhere behind. And then I remembered that, of course, she wouldn't know whom I meant. "Oh, your guest, you know--your friend from school," I went on, trying to tread cautiously and yet feeling myself growing red. "Oh, see here now, I don't like to say things, but--er--" "Oh, _go_ on!" she trilled, her sweet face shining wistful. "Well, I mean this--er--Miss Kirkland; came out with us this morning, don't you know. _I_ think of her as _the frump_--little idea--er--nickname of mine, you know, she's so _awful_!" And I screwed my glass with a chuckle. For an instant I thought she wouldn't catch it, she stared at me so blankly. _Then_ the joke of it--the jolly aptness, so to speak--got her full and square, and she just lifted a scream, hugging her knee and rocking back and forth, her face suffused, her laughter pealing like a chime of bells. And I just rocked, too, keeping her company. Really, I don't think I ever laughed so much since some chap plunked down on the hard crown of my new tile last winter. At least I _wanted_ to laugh--in church, you know, and it's so awful how you feel there when something--oh, _you_ know! And if you could have seen that poor fellow's face! By Jove, how glad I was for her jolly sense of humor that could see the point of things so quickly, and think them _clever_. Always had so dashed little patience with stupid people, don't you know. And just here another little thing came to me and I let her have it: "Oh, I say!"--I leaned nearer, chuckling--"your father pretends to think her a most beautiful and winning girl--_fancy_!" And my face stretched itself in such a jolly grin that I could hardly hold my glass. She bent toward me, smiling adorably. "You mean this--er--'Miss Kirkland'?" I nodded chortlingly. She peered at me through her long what-you-call-'ems--oh, _such_ a way! "But _you_ don't think so, _do_ you?" How sweetly, how fetchingly she said it!