"Pretty cheap lot, you mean? Well, I don't know."
"I don't mean that," retorted the student. "But I've got other things to
think of."
"Don't you believe," the clerk modestly urged, "that it is natural for a
man--well, a young man--to think about girls?"
"I suppose it is."
"And you don't consider it wrong?"
"How, wrong?"
"Well, a waste of time. I don't know as I always think about wanting to
marry 'em, or be in love, but I like to let my mind run on 'em. There's
something about a girl that, well, you don't know what it is, exactly.
Take almost any of 'em," said the clerk, with an air of inductive
reasoning. "Take that Claxon girl, now for example, I don't know what it
is about her. She's good-looking, I don't deny that; and she's got pretty
manners, and she's as graceful as a bird. But it a'n't any one of 'em,
and it don't seem to be all of 'em put together that makes you want to
keep your eyes on her the whole while. Ever noticed what a nice little
foot she's got? Or her hands?"
"No," said the student.
"I don't mean that she ever tries to show them off; though I know some
girls that would. But she's not that kind. She ain't much more than a
child, and yet you got to treat her just like a woman. Noticed the kind
of way she's got?"
"No," said the student, with impatience.
The clerk mused with a plaintive air for a moment before he spoke. "Well,
it's something as if she'd been trained to it, so that she knew just the
right thing to do, every time, and yet I guess it's nature. You know how
the chef always calls her the Boss? That explains it about as well as
anything, and I presume that's what my mind was running on, the other
day, when I called her Boss. But, my! I can't get anywhere near her
since!"
"It serves you right," said Gregory. "You had no business to tease her."
"Now, do you think it was teasing? I did, at first, and then again it
seemed to me that I came out with the word because it seemed the right
one. I presume I couldn't explain that to her."
"It wouldn't be easy."
"I look upon her," said Fane, with an effect of argument in the sweetness
of his smile, "just as I would upon any other young lady in the house. Do
you spell apology with one p or two?"
"One," said the student, and the clerk made a minute on a piece of paper.
"I feel badly for the girl. I don't want her to think I was teasing her
or taking any sort of liberty with her. Now, would you apologize to her,
if you was in my place, and would you write a note, or just wait your
chance and speak to her?"
Gregory got down from his stool with a disdainful laugh, and went out of
the place. "You make me sick, Fane," he said.
The last dance was over, and the young ladies who had been waltzing with
one another, came out of the parlor with gay cries and laughter, like
summer girls who had been at a brilliant hop, and began to stray down the
piazzas, and storm into the office. Several of them fluttered up to the
desk, as the clerk had foretold, and looked for letters in the boxes
bearing their initials. They called him out, and asked if he had not
forgotten something for them. He denied it with a sad, wise smile, and
then they tried to provoke him to a belated flirtation, in lack of other
material, but he met their overtures discreetly, and they presently said,
Well, they guessed they must go; and went. Fane turned to encounter
Gregory, who had come in by a side door.
"Fane, I want to beg your pardon. I was rude to you just now."
"Oh, no! Oh, no!" the clerk protested. "That's all right. Sit down a
while, can't you, and talk with a fellow. It's early, yet."
"No, I can't. I just wanted to say I was sorry I spoke in that way.
Good-night. Is there anything in particular?"
"No; good-night. I was just wondering about--that girl."
"Oh!"