"Oh no! All she had to do was simply to stay put."
"Don't you think Ah might have improved it if Ah had looked better?" the
girl asked, gravely.
"Oh, you couldn't!" said Fulkerson, and he went off triumphant in their
applause and their cries of "Which? which?"
Mrs. Leighton sank deep into an accusing gloom when at last she found
herself alone with her daughter. "I don't know what you are thinking
about, Alma Leighton. If you don't like Mr. Beaton--"
"I don't."
"You don't? You know better than that. You know that, you did care for
him."
"Oh! that's a very different thing. That's a thing that can be got over."
"Got over!" repeated Mrs. Leighton, aghast.
"Of course, it can! Don't be romantic, mamma. People get over dozens of
such fancies. They even marry for love two or three times."
"Never!" cried her mother, doing her best to feel shocked; and at last
looking it.
Her looking it had no effect upon Alma. "You can easily get over caring
for people; but you can't get over liking them--if you like them because
they are sweet and good. That's what lasts. I was a simple goose, and he
imposed upon me because he was a sophisticated goose. Now the case is
reversed."
"He does care for you, now. You can see it. Why do you encourage him to
come here?"
"I don't," said Alma. "I will tell him to keep away if you like. But
whether he comes or goes, it will be the same."
"Not to him, Alma! He is in love with you!"
"He has never said so."
"And you would really let him say so, when you intend to refuse him?"
"I can't very well refuse him till he does say so."
This was undeniable. Mrs. Leighton could only demand, in an awful tone,
"May I ask why--if you cared for him; and I know you care for him still
you will refuse him?"
Alma laughed. "Because--because I'm wedded to my Art, and I'm not going
to commit bigamy, whatever I do."
"Alma!"
"Well, then, because I don't like him--that is, I don't believe in him,
and don't trust him. He's fascinating, but he's false and he's fickle. He
can't help it, I dare say."
"And you are perfectly hard. Is it possible that you were actually
pleased to have Mr. Fulkerson tease you about Mr. Dryfoos?"
"Oh, good-night, now, mamma! This is becoming personal."