"I bet you wanted to dance with Marjorie!" said his friend.

"Me? I wouldn't dance with that girl if she begged me to! I wouldn't
dance with her to save her from drowning! I wouldn't da----"

"Oh, no--you wouldn't!" interrupted Mr. Williams skeptically.

Penrod changed his tone and became persuasive.

"Looky here, Sam," he said confidentially. "I've got 'a mighty nice
partner, but my mother don't like her mother; and so I've been thinking
I better not dance with her. I'll tell you what I'll do; I've got a
mighty good sling in the house, and I'll give it to you if you'll change
partners."

"You want to change and you don't even know who mine is!" said Sam, and
he made the simple though precocious deduction: "Yours must be a lala!
Well, I invited Mabel Rorebeck, and she wouldn't let me change if
I wanted to. Mabel Rorebeck'd rather dance with me," he continued
serenely, "than anybody; and she said she was awful afraid you'd ast
her. But I ain't goin' to dance with Mabel after all, because this
morning she sent me a note about her uncle died last night--and P'fessor
Bartet'll have to find me a partner after I get there. Anyway I bet you
haven't got any sling--and I bet your partner's Baby Rennsdale!"

"What if she is?" said Penrod. "She's good enough for ME!" This speech
held not so much modesty in solution as intended praise of the lady.
Taken literally, however, it was an understatement of the facts and
wholly insincere.