No answer.

"What's the matter ?" cried Diggory; "what did she say?"

"Why, this!" answered the other, in a voice trembling with suppressed
emotion: "she said I was a silly boy, and--and--_gave me a lump of
cake!_"

If any one else had done it, the probability is Acton would have slain
them on the spot. Diggory opened his eyes and mouth wide, and then
exploded with laughter. "Oh my!" he gasped, "I shall die, I know I
shall! Ha, ha, ha!"

Acton eyed him for a moment with a look of indignant astonishment; then
he began to smile, Jack Vance commenced to chuckle, and very soon all
three were laughing in concert.

"Well, I think it's rather unfeeling of you fellows," said the rejected
suitor; "I can tell you I'm jolly cut up about it."

"I'm awfully sorry," answered Diggory, "but I couldn't help laughing.
Cheer up; why, think, you won't have to get the ring now, so you can do
what you like with that five and ninepence you saved. Why, it's worth
being refused to have five and ninepence to spend in grub!"

"Ah, Diggy !" said the other, shaking his head in a mournful manner,
"wait till you're as old as I am: when you're close on fifteen you'll
think differently about love and all that sort of thing."

As has already been hinted, it was the failure of this attempt on the