Then the game began and he was seated by Miss McCarty, unutterably relieved that the tension of the contest had diverted the entire attention of the school from his particular sufferings.
The excitement of the play for the first time gave him an opportunity to study his companion. His first estimate was undoubtedly correct; she was plainly a woman of the world. No one else could sit at such perfect ease, the cynosure of so many eyes. Her dress was some wonderful creation, from Paris, no doubt, that rustled with an alluring sound and gave forth a pleasant perfume.
The more he looked the more his eye approved. She was quite unusual--quite. She had style--a very impressive style. He had never before remembered any one who held herself quite so well, or whose head carried itself so regally. There was something Spanish, too, about her black hair and eyes and the flush of red in her cheeks.
Having perceived all this Dink began to recover from his panic and, with a desire to wipe out his past awkwardness, began busily to search for some subject with which gracefully to open up the conversation.
At that moment his eye fell upon his boot carelessly displayed and, to his horror, beheld there a gaping crack. This discovery drove all desire for conversation at once out of his head. By a covert movement he drew the offending shoe up under the shadow of the other.
"You hate this, don't you?" said a laughing voice.
He turned, blushing, to find Miss McCarty's dark eyes alive with amusement.
"Of course, you loathe being dragged out this way," she said, cutting in. "Confess!"
"That's better," said Miss McCarty approvingly. "Now we shall get on better."
"How did you know?" said Dink, immensely mystified.
Miss McCarty wisely withheld this information, and before he knew it Dink was in the midst of a conversation, all his embarrassment forgot. The game ended--it had never been really important--and Dink found himself, actually to his regret, moving toward the Lodge.
There, as he was saying good-by with a Chesterfieldian air, Tough plucked him by the sleeve.
"I say, Dink, old man," he said doubtfully, "I'd like you to come over and grub with us. But I don't want to haul you over, you know----"
"My dear boy, I should love to!" said Dink, squeezing his arm eagerly.