o feeling rather ashamed of myself, is all, and it seemed to me the
only decent thing was to tell you so. I'm not making any bid for your
favor--I don't know that I want it. I don't care much about girls,
one way or the other. But, for all I've got the name of being several
things--a savage among the rest--I don't like to feel such a brute as
to make war on a girl that seems to be getting it handed to her right
along."

He tardily lighted his cigarette and sat smoking beside her, the tiny
glow lighting his face briefly now and then.

"When I was joshing you there before supper," he went on, speaking low
that he might not be overheard--and ridiculed--from the house, "I didn't
know the whole outfit was making a practice of doing the same thing.
I hadn't heard about the dead tarantula on your pillow, or the rattler
coiled up on the porch, or any of those innocent little jokes. But if
the rest are making it their business to devil the life out of you,
why--common humanity forces me to apologize and tell you I'm out of it
from now on."

"Oh! Thank you very much." Evadna's tone might be considered ironical.
"I suppose I ought to say that your statement lessens my dislike of
you--"

"Not at all." Grant interrupted her. "Go right ahead and hate me, if you
feel that way. It won't matter to me--girls never did concern me much,
one way or the other. I never was susceptible to beauty, and that seems
to be a woman's trump card, always--"

"Well, upon my word!"

"Sounds queer, does it? But it's the truth, and so what's the use of
lying, just to be polite? I won't torment you any more; and if the boys
rig up too strong a josh, I'm liable to give you a hint beforehand. I'm
willing to do that--my sympathies are always with the under dog, anyway,
and they're five to one. But that needn't mean that I'm--that I--" He
groped for words that would not make his meaning too bald; not even
Grant could quite bring himself to warn a girl against believing him a
victim of her fascinations.

"You needn't stutter. I'm not really stupid. You don't like me any
better than I like you. I can see that. We're to be as decent as
possible to each other--you from 'common humanity,' and I because I
promised Aunt Phoebe."

"We-e-l!--that's about it, I guess." Grant eyed her sidelong." Only I
wouldn't go so far as to say I actually dislike you. I never did dislike
a girl, that I remember. I never thought enough about them, one way or
the other." He se