ered, "I never said I hated you."

"Well,--dislike me, then; I know you said that."

"I--I disliked what you did--TRIED to do. It made me angry and it hurt
me. I shouldn't have said what I did that time, but it was your fault."

"You mean you shouldn't have said you didn't like me?" asked Annixter.
"Why?"

"Well, well,--I don't--I don't DISlike anybody," admitted Hilma.

"Then I can take it that you don't dislike ME? Is that it?"

"I don't dislike anybody," persisted Hilma.

"Well, I asked you more than that, didn't I?" queried Annixter uneasily.
"I asked you to like me, remember, the other day. I'm asking you that
again, now. I want you to like me."

Hilma lifted her eyes inquiringly to his. In her words was an
unmistakable ring of absolute sincerity. Innocently she inquired:

"Why?"

Annixter was struck speechless. In the face of such candour, such
perfect ingenuousness, he was at a loss for any words.

"Well--well," he stammered, "well--I don't know," he suddenly burst out.
"That is," he went on, groping for his wits, "I can't quite say why."
The idea of a colossal lie occurred to him, a thing actually royal.

"I like to have the people who are around me like me," he declared.
"I--I like to be popular, understand? Yes, that's it," he continued,
more reassured. "I don't like the idea of any one disliking me. That's
the way I am. It's my nature."

"Oh, then," returned Hilma, "you needn't bother. No, I don't dislike
you."

"Well, that's good," declared Annixter judicially. "That's good. But
hold on," he interrupted, "I'm forgetting. It's not enough to not
dislike me. I want you to like me. How about THAT?"

Hilma paused for a moment, glancing vaguely out of the doorway toward
the lighted window of the dairy-house, her head tilted.

"I don't know that I ever thought about that," she said.

"Well, think about it now," insisted Annixter.

"But I never thought about liking anybody particularly," she observed.
"It's because I like everybody, don't you see?"

"Well, you've got to like some people more than other people," hazarded
Annixter, "and I want to be one of those 'some people,' savvy? Good
Lord, I don't know how to say these fool things. I talk like a galoot
when I get talking to feemale girls and I can't lay my tongue to
anything that sounds right. It isn't my nature. And look here, I lied
when I said I liked to have people like me--to be popular. Rot! I don't
care a curse about people's opinion