he poor
girl, take her about, cheer and entertain her, as far as possible, till
the end of her stay.

Miss Lascelles, in default of better, fixed on Miss Vanhansen, the
American young lady, as a friend for May. Miss Vanhansen had plenty of
time on her hands, plenty of confidence, plenty of money. She had
taken even exclusive St. Ambrose's by storm, for Athens itself would
have found it difficult to resist her racy indifference, her shrewd
mother-wit, her superb frocks, and her sublime heaps of dollars. At
the same time she was perfectly good-natured and quite trustworthy in
her own free and easy way. She had scandalized Miss Lascelles in the
earlier days of their acquaintance by her energetic determination to
have "a good time of it." She had made the lady principal's hair stand
on end by calmly suggesting nice rides and rows and luncheons at
village inns, _tete-a-tete_ with the "mooniest" young fellows who
could be laid hold of and crammed with stories about America and the
doings of American girls.

But practically Miss Vanhansen had the good sense to do at Rome as the
Romans did; she confined her independence to those sallies of the
tongue, which were not without a rousing charm in a place grown partly
languid, partly esoteric, by dint of a superabundance of culture and of
college statutes elaborate, involved and irreversible as the laws of the
Medes and the Persians.

Keturah Vanhansen rather liked the task imposed upon her. It appealed
at once to her kindliness of nature and her love of creating a
sensation; she would rouse this drooping young beauty who showed such
a sinful disregard of her complexion and eyes. Miss Vanhansen was
herself as sallow as a nabob, her small eyes, by an unkind perversity
on the part of her fairy god-mother, were of a fishy paleness, yet she
managed to her great satisfaction, by dint of dress and carriage, to
be a striking-looking and all but a handsome girl, so that she had no
overpowering reason to be jealous of her better-endowed neighbours.
She would astonish Miss Millar's weak nerves, and give her "a wrinkle
or two," before she had done with her.

At first May shrank back a good deal from the advances of the conquering
princess from the Far West; but here the English girl's humility and
good feeling stood her in better stead than her judgment. May was
grateful to Miss Vanhansen, and went so far as to be flattered by her
attentions even when they gave the recipient no pleasure.