He thought he had attached the shadow himself. "How clever I
am!" he crowed rapturously, "oh, the cleverness of me!"

It is humiliating to have to confess that this conceit of Peter was
one of his most fascinating qualities. To put it with brutal frankness,
there never was a cockier boy.

But for the moment Wendy was shocked. "You conceit [braggart]," she
exclaimed, with frightful sarcasm; "of course I did nothing!"

"You did a little," Peter said carelessly, and continued to dance.

"A little!" she replied with hauteur [pride]; "if I am no use I can at
least withdraw," and she sprang in the most dignified way into bed and
covered her face with the blankets.

To induce her to look up he pretended to be going away, and when this
failed he sat on the end of the bed and tapped her gently with his foot.
"Wendy," he said, "don't withdraw. I can't help crowing, Wendy, when
I'm pleased with myself." Still she would not look up, though she was
listening eagerly. "Wendy," he continued, in a voice that no woman has
ever yet been able to resist, "Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty
boys."

Now Wendy was every inch a woman, though there were not very many
inches, and she peeped out of the bed-clothes.

"Do you really think so, Peter?"

"Yes, I do."

"I think it's perfectly sweet of you," she declared, "and I'll get up
again," and she sat with him on the side of the bed. She also said
she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she
meant, and he held out his hand expectantly.

"Surely you know what a kiss is?" she asked, aghast.

"I shall know when you give it to me," he replied stiffly, and not to
hurt his feeling she gave him a thimble.

"Now," said he, "shall I give you a kiss?" and she replied with a slight
primness, "If you please." She made herself rather cheap by inclining
her face toward him, but he merely dropped an acorn button into her
hand, so she slowly returned her face to where it had been before, and
said nicely that she would wear his kiss on the chain around her neck.
It was lucky that she did put it on that chain, for it was afterwards to
save her life.

When people in our set are introduced, it is customary for them to
ask each other's age, and so Wendy, who always liked to do the correct
thing, asked Peter how old he was. It was not really a happy question to
ask him; it was like an examination paper that asks grammar, when what
you want to be asked is Kings of England.