that at all. I talked to him when he came to sit down by me, but that
was all. I couldn't very well tell him to go away, or not answer him
when he spoke to me, could I?"

"Oh, I know what you're going to say--that it was all his fault. But if
you hadn't tried to make him come he wouldn't have done it."

"I didn't try to make him come. Did you?"

Dolly stared at her a moment. The question seemed to force her to give
attention to a new idea, to something she had not thought of before. But
when she spoke her voice was still defiant.

"Suppose I did!" she said angrily. "I wanted to have a good time--and he
was the nicest boy there--"

"Maybe he saw that you were waiting for him too plainly, Dolly. Maybe he
wanted to pick out someone for himself--and if you'd pretended that you
didn't care whether he talked to you or not he would have been more
anxious to be with you."

Dolly blushed slightly at that, though it was too dark for Bessie to see
the color in her cheeks. She knew very well that Bessie was right, but
she wondered how Bessie knew it. That feigned indifference had brought
her the attentions of more than one boy who had boasted that he was not
going to pay any attention to her just because everyone else did.

But the gradually dawning suspicion that she might, after all, have only
herself to blame for the spoiling of her evening's fun, and that she had
acted in rather a silly fashion, didn't soften Dolly particularly. Very