keep house for Will when he ‘s a minister, I heard her say so,”
cried Maud, with importance.
“What a fate for pretty Polly!” ejaculated Tom.
“She likes it, and I ‘m sure I should think she would; it ‘s beautiful
to hear ’em plan it all out.”
“Any more gossip to retail, Pug?” asked Tom a minute after, as
Maud seemed absorbed in visions of the, future.
“He told a funny story about blowing up one of the professors. You
never told us, so I suppose you did n’t know it. Some bad fellow
put a torpedo, or some sort of powder thing, under the chair, and it
went off in the midst of the lesson, and the poor man flew up,
frightened most to pieces, and the boys ran with pails of water to
put the fire out. But the thing that made Will laugh most was, that
the very fellow who did it got his trousers burnt trying to put out
the fire, and he asked the is it Faculty or President? ”
“Either will do,” murmured Tom, who was shaking with
suppressed laughter.
“Well, he asked ’em to give him some new ones, and they did give
him money enough, for a nice pair; but he got some cheap ones,
with horrid great stripes on ’em, and always wore ’em to that
particular class, ‘which was one too many for the fellows,’ Will
said, and with the rest of the money he had a punch party. Was n’t
it dreadful?”
“Awful!” And Tom exploded into a great laugh, that made Fanny
cover her ears, and the little dog bark wildly.
“Did you know that bad boy?” asked innocent Maud.
“Slightly,” gasped Tom, in whose wardrobe at college those
identical trousers were hanging at that moment.
“Don’t make such a noise, my head aches dreadfully,” said Fanny,
fretfully.
“Girls’ heads always do ache,” answered Tom, subsiding from a
roar into a chuckle.
“What pleasure you boys can find in such ungentlemanly things, I
don’t see,” said Fanny, who was evidently out of sorts.
“As much a mystery to you as it is to us, how you girls can like to
gabble and prink from one week’s end to the other,” retorted Tom.
There was a pause after this little passage-at-arms, but Fan wanted
to be amused, for time hung heavily on her hands, so she asked, in
a more amiable tone, “How ‘s Trix?”
“As sweet as ever,” answered Tom, gruffly.
“Did she scold you, as usual?”
“She just did.”
“What was the matter?”
“Well, I ‘ll leave it to you if this is n’t unreasonable: she won’t
dance with me herself, yet don’t like me to go it with anybody else.
I said, I thought, if a fellow took a girl to a party, she ought to
dance with him once, at least, especially if they were engaged. She
said that was the very reason why she should n’t do it; so, at the
last hop, I let her alone, and had a gay time with Belle, and to-day
Trix gave it to me hot and heavy, coming home from church.”
“If you go and engage yourself to a girl like that, I don’t know what
you can expect. Did she wear her Paris hat to-day?” added Fan,
with sudden interest in her voice.
“She wore some sort of a blue thing, with a confounded bird of
Paradise in it, that kept whisking into my face every time she
turned her head.”
“Men never know a pretty thing when they see it. That hat is
perfectly lovely.”
“They know a lady when they see her, and Trix don’t look like one;
I can’t say where the trouble is, but there ‘s too much fuss and
feathers for my taste. You are twice as stylish, yet you never look
loud or fast.”
Touched by this unusual compliment, Fanny drew her chair nearer
as she replied with complacency, “Yes, I flatter myself I do know
how to dress well. Trix never did; she ‘s fond of gay colors, and
generally looks like a walking rainbow.”
“Can’t you give her a hint? Tell her not to wear blue gloves
anyway, she knows I hate ’em.”