"And you used to call me Wuth!" Ruth had eagerly replied.
It had touched her, surrounded as she was by perfunctoriness and embarrassment that this young girl should seek her out in that warm way. And something in the girl's eyes had puzzled her. She had returned to thought of it more than once and that made her peculiarly interested in Ted's queer allusion to Mildred now.
"Mildred's getting in rather bad," he said shortly.
"Getting--what do you mean, Ted?" she asked, looking at him in a startled way.
"People are--?" she began, but stopped, looking at him all the while in that startled way.
"Talking about her," he repeated. "I guess it's been going on for some time--though I didn't hear about it until a little while ago."
"About what, Ted?" Her voice faltered and it seemed to make him suddenly conscious of what he was saying, to whom he spoke.
"Why,"--he faltered now too, "Mildred's acting sort of silly--that's all. I don't know--a flirtation, or something, with Billy Archer. You don't know him; he came here a few years ago on some construction work. He's an engineer. He is a fascinating fellow, all right," he added.
Ruth pushed back her chair into deeper shadow. "And--?" she suggested faintly.
She did not speak for what seemed a long time. Ted was beginning to fidget. Then, "How old is Mildred, Ted?" Ruth asked in a very quiet voice.
"About twenty, I guess; she's a couple of years younger than I am."
"And this man?--how old is he?" That she asked a little sharply.
"Oh, I don't know; he's in the older crowd; somewhere in the thirties, I should say."
"Well--" But she abruptly checked what she had sharply begun to say, and pushed her chair still further back into shadow. When Ted stole a timid glance at her a minute later he saw that she seemed to be holding her hands tight together.
"And doesn't Mildred's mother--?" It seemed impossible for her to finish anything, to say it out.
He shook his head. "Guess not. It's funny--but you know a person's folks--"
There was another silence; then Ted began to whistle softly and was looking over the railing as if interested in something down on the lawn.
"And you say people are really--talking about Mildred, Ted?" Ruth finally asked, speaking with apparent effort.