Page:Duer Miller--The charm school.djvu/97

 Oh, Mr. Bevans, don't interfere with my going to college. I want to so much. You have to have degrees, nowadays, to do anything in the world, and school, even if you work hard, isn't the same. Miss Hayes says—"

"This is a question about which Miss Hayes and I disagree."

"Oh, I know," she wailed. "And it's so dreadful when the two people you respect most in the world disagree about what you ought to do."

Austin was silent. His self-confidence, which soared in the face of opposition, sank before praise. Why in thunder should this little girl respect him, and was he wise, was he even honest in the advice he was giving her? In his hesitation, almost unconsciously, he drew toward him the vase holding the gardenia, and slowly breathed in its intoxicating perfume. This was too much for the little princess. She drew back, grew slowly, conspicuously, splendidly crimson, and then, evidently feeling that the situation had passed far beyond her powers, she retreated hastily to the door.

But there, with her hand actually on the knob, she made a last stand.

"It isn't," she said, gently, "as if you and