O. B. J. Holmes clutched Genevieve's hand, stammered a confused something in response to the introductions, and flung a terrifiedly uncertain bow in the direction of the wide-eyed girls; then he turned and fled precipitately. Behind him he left, for one brief minute, a dazed silence before Tilly lifted her chin disagreeably and spoke. "Well, dear me! For so _marked_ a bid for his favor, seems to me our young friend doesn't show proper appreciation--to run away like that!" Genevieve colored angrily. "That was no bid for his favor, and you know it, Tilly Mack!" "No?" teased Tilly, hatefully. "Well, I'm sure I should have thought it was if a perfect stranger flung herself in my way like that." "Tilly, Tilly--don't!" begged Cordelia, almost tearfully. It was Genevieve's turn to lift a disdainful chin. She eyed Tilly scornfully. "Oh, no, you wouldn't--not if some other perfect stranger had just called out a particularly hateful, horrid joke about something you were not in the least to blame for! If you hadn't said what you did, I shouldn't have said what I did, Tilly Mack. As it was, I--I just couldn't help it; I was so sorry for him!" "Oh, it was just being sorry, then! Oh, excuse me; I didn't know," cooed Tilly, smoothly. "You see, it looked so--different!" "Tilly!" gasped Cordelia. "Genevieve, don't you mind one bit what she says!" But Genevieve, without a word, had turned and was walking swiftly away. "Well, Tilly Mack," chorused several indignant voices; and Elsie Martin added severely: "I've got my opinion of _you_--after all Genevieve has just done for us! I'm sure, I think it was lovely of her to speak to that boy like that!" Tilly flushed uncomfortably. Her tongue had gone much farther than she had intended it to go. She did not like to think, either, of that Texas trip just then. But the very shame that she felt made her only the more determined not to show it--then. "Pooh! there wasn't a thing I said that anybody need to make such a fuss about," she declared loftily; then, as she spied Harold Day coming toward them, she called in a merry voice: "Seen the new boy, Harold? His name is 'O. B. J. Holmes.' _I_ say his name is 'O Be Joyful,' and the girls are shocked at my disrespect." "Is that so?" laughed Harold. "Well, I'm not sure I'd like that name myself very well--even if 'tis a cheerful one! Where's Genevieve? One doesn't often see one of you without all of you." "Oh, she was here, but she's gone. She was the most shocked of all," answered Tilly, with mock humility. "Probably she's gone to tell him so. You see, she shook hands with him and introduced us all around, and said she'd like to welcome him and that she hoped he'd enjoy it here." "Oh, Tilly!" remonstrated Cordelia. "Why, Cordelia, didn't she?" asked Tilly, in a particularly innocent tone of voice. "Y-yes," admitted Cordelia, reluctantly, "only--" The bell rang and the group broke up, with Cordelia's sentence still unfinished.