Page:Daskam--The imp and the angel.djvu/165

The Imp Disposes I care for nothing but admiration and flattery! Oh, what fools men are!"

Miss Eleanor's cheeks were very red, she breathed deep and looked so strangely at the Imp that he felt actually embarrassed, and dropped his eyes to his offending boots.

"Not that I care," she added in a lower voice, "not that I care at all. Naturally I couldn't, being perfectly heartless and preferring the admiration of a dozen men to the—Oh, dear! I wish I had never been born!"

At this point she slipped down under the tree, turned over with her face on her arms and lay perfectly still.

The Imp regarded her for a moment, but as she paid no attention to him and seemed to be asleep, he got up softly and walked away on his tiptoes. He felt distinctly depressed. So low, indeed, were his spirits, that he utterly forgot that he was every minute moving farther away from the big tree that a too-thoughtful Providence seemed to have established at just the point to satisfy his mother's idea of a boundary to his unaccompanied strolls.

A passing chipmunk caught his eye and he 137