I can do them good, I know I can. But they won't let me. They keep me
at arm's length. They are both dear, and I love them. But they freeze
me to death! Why?"

"I can't believe it!"

"But it is true. Don't they talk of their professors at home at all?"

"Oh, often."

"What do they say of us?"

"Why, they say Miss Adams is a perfectly sweet old lamb,--they do not
mean to be disrespectful. And they say Professor Duke is the dearest
duck! They almost swear by 'Professor Duck'!"

"And what do they say of me?"

Prudence hesitated, thinking hard.

"Come now, what do they say? We must get to the bottom of this."

"Why, they have said that you are very pretty, and most unbelievably
smart."

"Oh! Quite a difference between sweet old lamb, and the dearest duck,
and being very pretty and smart! Do you see it?"

"Yes," confessed Prudence reluctantly, "but I hadn't thought of it
before."