he asked him
to come and see her on the next afternoon.

Nancy was particularly charming, Tom thought when he was again with her,
and what was even more to the point, he found that they were to be
alone. She got his tea ready without difficulty--he was flattered that
she remembered his formula--and they settled back for a good talk and
laugh.

"I wasn't civil to him, but I really don't care! Did you ever know a
more dreadful person?"

"Never. He's awful. But, tell me, how did it go until he took charge?"

"Why, not so badly. But, oh, Tom I heard about you!"

Tom flushed. "What did you hear?"

"Well, Bob was here last night and he said he saw you through the
window. He told us how you got them all around you and how you might
have been talking about anything." She was wholly admiring.

"Oh, I just talked to them," he said. "I never could have gotten away
with anything formal."

"Isn't it funny? I used to think that teaching must be the easiest thing
in the world. I used to imagine myself lecturing to the whole college,
but I can appreciate now what you and Henry are doing."

Tom was anxious to have the conversation move upon firmer ground. He was
also in the dark as to what the next move in the campaign was to be.

Was it to be abandoned, or were they to try and carry on? The latter
possibility seemed too fearful. How could he go into that room again?
But one must proceed cautiously. It would never do, for example, to come
out and treat the whole thing as a distinctly juvenile performance,
something they had quite outgrown, until it was clear that they had
outgrown it. Again, now was not the time to explain the real nature of
his lecture. He could do that when the whole thing had become an
amusing memory. "What are we going to do about Mr. Sprig?" asked Tom
vaguely.

"You mean are we going to keep on with the lectures?"

"Well, yes."

"What do you think? Last night I was so sick about the whole thing that
I was ready to give it all up, but now I wonder if it isn't our duty to
give it one more trial." Her words were disappointing, but the
dispirited tone in which she said them was cheering, and Tom made so
bold as to sing the lately revived "Duty, duty must be done, the rule
applies to everyone, and painful though the duty be, to shirk the task
were fiddle-dee-dee..."; a happy impulse, for when Henry arrived from
his five o'clock he found Tom at the piano and Nancy sitting by him, the
one in the role of t