"Heavens!" exclaimed Nina, "the blue-stocking and the fogy!--and yours
_are_ pale blue, Eileen!--you're about as self-conscious as
Drina--slumping there with your hair tumbling _a la_ Merode! Oh, it's
very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is
better. Get up, little blue-stockings and we'll have our hair done--if
you expect to appear at Hitherwood House with me!"
Eileen laughed, calmly smoothing out her skirt over her slim ankles;
then she closed the book, sat up, and looked happily at Selwyn.
"Fogy and _Bas-bleu_," she repeated. "But it _is_ fascinating, isn't
it?--even if my hair is across my ears and you sit that chair like a
polo player! Nina, dearest, what is your mature opinion concerning the
tomoya and the Buddhist cross?"
"I know more about a tomboy-a than a tomoya, my saucy friend," observed
Nina, surveying her with disapproval--"and I can be as cross about it as
any Buddhist, too. You are, to express it as pleasantly as possible, a
sight! Child, what on earth have you been doing? There are two smears
on your cheeks!"
"I've been crying," said the girl, with an amused sidelong flutter of
her lids toward Selwyn.
Pages:
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522