done no great mischief yet.

"Can't you take a joke, Petro?" she teased him, laughing "I'm not a
cat, or a pig, either. But you do scare me a little. You don't _like_
this girl, do you?"

"Of course I like her."

"You know what I mean by 'like.' And I hope I know what _you_ mean.
You always yearn over every creature who hasn't as much money as we
have and needs ours. _Sure_ it's no more than that this time? It would
be--just the limit, the outside edge and down the other side, if you
fell in love with a dressmaker's model. It would be like--like
reverting to type. We must climb, not--_root_."

Peter laughed--nervously, his sister feared. "What a girl you are! You
needn't fash yourself about my feelings for Miss Child. All I want is
to help her to get on."

"Oh! To help her get on? Well, then, you may introduce her to me, if
it can be done without taking up too much time. You know, Petro, it's
my last day on board, and I have my feelings as much as you. How can
we manage it? Can you bring her here?"

"I can't 'bring' her anywhere," Peter retorted rather gruffly. "She
isn't a servant looking for a place. I've told you she's a lady."

"Oh, all right. What do you suggest?"

"She hasn't much time to herself. Since the weather improved, business
is brisker. But after her dinner she gets in a walk down on B deck,
where nobody else goes. I could take you there about half-past eight."

"Very well. That's the program." Ena spoke with regained cheerfulness,
because no one need witness an introduction effected on B deck, and
because a sentence of Peter's had been like a bull's-eye lantern
directing a ray along the right track. "I'll be _ever_ so nice to Miss
Child to-night--and afterward, too, in New York, if you can bring
anything off with Lord Raygan about the visit. Are you playing poker
with him this afternoon?"

"Yes. Some chaps wanted---"

"I know. He told me. But he didn't mention you. Afterward, will you
work right up to the 'good thing' you can put him on to? He'll be in
just the mood--if he loses. And he says he always does lose."

"Yes. I'll let him see that he might do well for himself by staying.
Gee! Think of a fellow needing a bribe to spend a couple of weeks in
God's country!"

"He doesn't know yet that it is God's country. We must show him. Oh,
Peter, won't the Van Raaltens and the Arlingtons fall over themselves
with rage if the Earl of Raygan and his mother and sister stop with us
for a fortnight