!"

"Stop with us for a fortnight!" mimicked Peter, scornful yet
affectionate now. "You get more British every day in your accent and
conversation, my kid."

"Well, I try hard enough! I _do_ like their way of speaking. They make
our voices sound grating and our expressions crude."

"_Our_ ways for mine!"

"You can have them. Now run away, Petro. I'll see the 'Young Moon'
later. I need a nap. Lay awake last night worrying!"

But when he had gone she lay awake planning. This golliwog was
undoubtedly dangerous. The absorbed look in Peter's eyes when he
described her singular attractions contradicted the statement that his
feelings were Platonic.

He "only wanted to help!" Pooh! Still Ena was glad he had said that,
because it had given her a brilliant idea. It was also rather a cruel
idea, but all is fair in love and war: and this might be both.

Of course, if the girl were coming to New York to be a Salamander,
the weapon would be useless. Ena must find another. She could not be
sure until she had met Miss Child; but she told herself that no
glorified golliwog, however sly, could fool _her_ for five minutes!
She would soon know whether Peter were right or wrong about this
daughter of a clergyman whose mother was dead.

Poor Petro, he was such a fool about people--such a dear, nice, but
sometimes inconvenient fool! Just mother's disposition over again,
with a touch of father's cleverness splashed in here and there where
you'd least expect it--but _never_ in the place where it would be most
useful.

As Ena reflected thus, she was vaguely pleased with herself after the
fashion of an earnest student who suddenly finds himself actually
thinking in French. Before she Went to Mme. Yarde's Finishing School
for Young Ladies, she had been so accustomed to saying pa and ma that
it had been very difficult to overcome the habit. Even now, once in a
while, she--but, thank heaven, not _once_ since meeting Lord Raygan;
she was sure of that. He had said, "You talk quite like our girls."
And all the rest of the day she had been happy; for sometimes, in a
good-natured sort of way, he made fun of what he absurdly called "the
American accent."

Ena shut her eyes and composed herself to lie down without ruffling
her hair. But she could not sleep. She made pictures of Lord Raygan
and his mother and Lady Eileen visiting at their house on Long Island.

Would they think it more "swell" of the Rollses to be living in the
country than