"Comfortable, Nell? That's right. Always strive for contentment,
whatever your lot may be. At present your lot is to provide me with a
nice, springy seat, and it will so continue to be until you promise--on
your honor, mind--that you will not lay a destructive hand on this
sweetest of instruments."
"Oh, let me get up, Dick!"
"Until I receive that promise, and an abject apology, it is a case of
_j'y suis, j'y reste_, my child," he responded blandly.
She panted and struggled for a moment or two, then she gasped: "I--I promise!"
"On your word of honor?"
"Yes, yes! Dick, you are breaking my ribs or something."
"Corset, perhaps," he suggested. "And the apology? A verbal one will
suffice on this occasion, accompanied by the sum of one shilling for the
purchase of cigarettes."
"I shan't! You never said a word about a shilling!"
"I did not--I hadn't time; but I shall now have time to make it two."
The door opened, and a servant with a moon-shaped face and prominent
eyes looked in. She did not seem at all surprised at the state of
affairs--did not even smile.
"The butcher's man says shall he wait any longer, miss?"
"Yes, tell him to wait, Molly," said the boy. "Miss Nell is tired, and
is lying down for a little while; resting, you know."
"I--I promise! I apologize! You--you shall have the shilling!" gasped
the girl, half angrily, half haughtily.
He rose in a leisurely fashion, got back to his window seat, and held
out his long, shapely hand.
She shook herself, put up one hand to her hair, and took a shilling from
her pocket with the other.
"Tiresome boy!" she exclaimed. "If I live to be a hundred, I shall never
know why boys were invented."
"There are lots of other things, simpler things, that you will never
know, though you live to be a Methuselah, my dear Nell," he said; "one
of them being that twenty-seven and eight do not make thirty-nine."
"Thirty-nine? Why, of course not; thirty-five!" she retorted. "That's
where I was wrong. Dick, you are a beast. There's the book, Molly, and
there's the money----Oh, give me back that shilling, Dick; I want it!
I've only just got enough. Give it me back at once; you shall have it
again, I swear--I mean, I promise."
"Simple child!" he murmured sweetly. "So young, so simple! She really
thinks I shall give it to her! Such innocence is indeed touching! Excuse
these tears. It will soon pass!"