Читать книгу Frank Merriwell's Prosperity; or, Toil Has Its Reward онлайн

18 страница из 61

“I don’t know whether to be flattered or offended.”

“Don’t be either, Miss Stanley. I am not trying to flatter. I hope I shall not offend. I didn’t mean to say this to you. Oh, I meant to keep my mouth shut, but I can’t.”

“That’s what ails lots of us,” she observed, with a flippancy that jarred on his nerves.

He went on:

“Despite myself, I would think of you when you were not near. Despite myself, I would be watching you when you were in sight. I saw you laughing and talking with that addle-pated boy, Wynne, and I wanted to spank him. I saw you smiling on Lester Vance, and I wanted to knock his head off.”

“And all the while I never dreamed of this. Oh, say, Hodge, don’t get sentimental now. I don’t like it, my boy. I didn’t stop you to have you tell me all this, but——”

“I am going to tell it just the same!” he shouted, his eyes blazing. “I did not mean to, but I’ll not be stopped now. I am going to tell it, and, by Heaven, you must listen.”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s a pretty bad case with you, that’s plain; but you’ll get over it, my dear fellow.”