it like a cat at him! She had the tongue
of a serpent and a vicious temper. He hated her! Wallie removed his hat
with exaggerated politeness and decided never to have anything more to
say to Miss Spenceley.

CHAPTER V

"GENTLE ANNIE"

Wallie had told himself emphatically that he would never speak again to
Helene Spenceley. That would be an easy matter since she had glared at
him, when they had passed as she was going in for breakfast, in a way
that would have made him afraid to speak even if he had intended to. To
refrain from thinking of her was something different.

He sat on a rustic bench on The Colonial lawn watching the silly robins
and wondering why she had called him "Gentle Annie." It was clear enough
that nothing flattering was intended, but what did she mean by it? There
was no reason that he could see for her to fly at him--quite the
contrary. He had been very generous and gentlemanly, it seemed to him,
in congratulating Pinkey when it was due to them that he, Wallie, was
thrown into the petunias. His neck was still stiff from the fall and no
one had remembered to inquire about it--that was another reason for the
disgruntled mood in which the moment found him. The women were making
perfect _fools_ of themselves over that Pinkey--they were at it now, he
could hear them cackling on the veranda.

What he could not understand was why they should act as if there was
something _amusing_ about a woman who came from west of Buffalo and then
make a hero of a man from the Wild and Woolly. Yet they always did it,
he had noticed. Why, that Pinkey could not speak a grammatical sentence
and they hung on his every word, breathless. It was disgusting!

Wallie picked up a pebble and pelted a robin.

He wished the undertow would catch that Spenceley girl. If he should
reach her when she was going down for the third time she would _have_ to
thank him for saving her and that would about kill her. He decided that
he would make a point of bathing when she did, on the very remote chance
that it might happen.

"Gentle Annie! Gentle Annie! Gentle Annie!" The name rankled.

Wallie pitched a pebble at another robin and accidentally hit it.
Stunned for an instant, it keeled over, and Wallie glanced guiltily
toward the hotel to see if by any chance Mr. Cone, who encouraged
robins, was looking.

Pinkey was crossing the lawn with the obvious intention of joining him.

"Gee!" he exclaimed, sinking down beside Wallie, "