it's this way: maybe she won't be there. She goes to the university."

"Then call again."

"What I said ain't what I meant," Martin confessed falteringly, while he
made up his mind to throw himself wholly upon the other's mercy. "I'm
just a rough sort of a fellow, an' I ain't never seen anything of
society. This girl is all that I ain't, an' I ain't anything that she
is. You don't think I'm playin' the fool, do you?" he demanded abruptly.

"No, no; not at all, I assure you," the other protested. "Your request
is not exactly in the scope of the reference department, but I shall be
only too pleased to assist you."

Martin looked at him admiringly.

"If I could tear it off that way, I'd be all right," he said.

"I beg pardon?"

"I mean if I could talk easy that way, an' polite, an' all the rest."

"Oh," said the other, with comprehension.

"What is the best time to call? The afternoon?--not too close to meal-
time? Or the evening? Or Sunday?"

"I'll tell you," the librarian said with a brightening face. "You call
her up on the telephone and find out."