"I'm afraid I have," laughed Ira. "Good night. I--if you'd care to come and see me some time I'd be glad to have you. My place isn't very much, though. Still, if you'd care to--And I'd like you to meet Nead."
"Very glad to," replied Brad. "We'll drop around some evening. Good night, Rowland. Don't forget your way here."
"Good night," said Mart. "I'm sorry you must go, Rowland, but at least I can smoke my cigarette now. Come again and bring your dog!"
When Ira reached the first landing at Maggy's a sudden glare of light shot across the dim hall and he saw the tall form of "Old Earnest" silhouetted in his doorway.
"Eh? What are you talking about?" exclaimed the voice startledly.
The door was slammed irately and Ira stumbled his way up in the gloom, chuckling.
Country Day School came Saturday and put up a good fight, but was defeated by the score of 7 to 3. Ira witnessed that contest from the bench and found more interest in it than in the Mapleton battle because he wanted very much to have Parkinson win. He felt certain that a defeat would make much more difficult the already discouraging task ahead of captain and coach. Then, too, there was a personal side to it. He was, to a limited extent, a member of that brown-legged team, and, naturally enough, he preferred to be associated with success. But he just couldn't get up any real excitement, even when, in the third period, Country Day scored that field-goal and took the lead, or when, ten minutes later, Parkinson, with Dannis back to yelp and drive, marched from the enemy's forty-yard line to her nine and then tossed a forward-pass over to Ray White. Of course, now that he knew what it was all about--or some of it!--and realised how hard the brown team was working on that thirty-yard march, he found more interest, but, unlike some of the others around him, he was able to sit quietly on the bench without squirming, didn't make funny noises in his throat when Wells fumbled a pass and, in brief, kept his heart beating away at its normal speed. But he _was_ glad when it was over and Parkinson had won, and he said as much to Logan, a substitute end, with whom he walked back to the gymnasium.
"I'm glad we won it," he said in a quietly satisfied tone. "Aren't you?"