She grew nervous, and at last said:
"I am tired. You put in that flower."
He took the book and pencils from her, as she rose from her chair and
gave him her place, and with a few strong and rapid strokes finished
the sketch.
"After all," she said to herself, with hearty appreciation, "men do
have the advantage of girls. He bothered me dreadfully, and I did not
bother him in the least. And yet I stood as near to him as he did to
me."
Mrs. Belding came in a moment later. She was in high spirits. They had
had a good meeting--had converted a Jew, she thought. She admired the
sketch very much; hoped Alice had been no trouble to Farnham. He walked
home with the ladies, and afterward smoked a cigar with great
deliberation under the limes.
Mrs. Belding asked Alice how they had got on.
"He did not eat you, you see. You must get out of your ideas of men,
especially men of Arthur Farnham's age. He never thinks of you. He is
old enough to be your father."
Alice kissed her mother and went to her own room, calculating on the
way the difference between her age and Captain Farnham's.
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