I really want to help you , if I can manage it . Just sit down and let 's talk it over . '' `` I 'm sorry , but I ca n't . I have to be home soon -- Jims has to be settled for the night , you know . '' `` Oh , yes -- the baby you are bringing up by the book . It 's perfectly sweet of you to do it when you hate children so . How cross you were just because I kissed him ! But we 'll forget all that and be chums again , wo n't we ? Now , about the concert -- I dare say I can run into town on the morning train after my dress , and out again on the afternoon one in plenty of time for the concert , if you 'll ask Miss Oliver to play for me . I could n't -- she 's so dreadfully haughty and supercilious that she simply paralyses poor little me . '' Rilla did not waste time or breath defending Miss Oliver . She coolly thanked Irene , who had suddenly become very amiable and gushing , and got away . She was very thankful the interview was over . But she knew now that she and Irene could never be the friends they had been . Friendly , yes -- but friends , no . Nor did she wish it . All winter she had felt under her other and more serious worries , a little feeling of regret for her lost chum . Now it was suddenly gone . Irene was not as Mrs. Elliott would say , of the race that knew Joseph . Rilla did not say or think that she had outgrown Irene .
Had the thought occurred to her she would have considered it absurd when she was not yet seventeen and XXXXX was twenty .
Irene Jims Joseph Oliver Rilla afternoon chums gushing morning night