t, and gave his shoulders a twitch of tolerant amusement that she
should be afraid of him. Then he stared out over the pond again. Evadna
walked straight over to him.

"So you're that other savage whose manners I'm supposed to smooth, are
you?" she asked abruptly, coming to a stop within three feet of him, and
regarding him carefully, her hands clasped behind her.

"Please don't tease the animals," Grant returned, in the same impersonal
tone which she had seen fit to employ--but his eyes turned for a
sidelong glance at her, although he appeared to be watching the trout
rise lazily to the insects skimming over the surface of the water.

"I'm supposed to be nice to you--par-TIC-ularly nice--because you need
it most. I dare say you do, judging from what I've seen of you. At any
rate, I've promised. But I just want you to understand that I'm not
going to mean one single bit of it. I don't like you--I can't endure
you!--and if I'm nice, it will just be because I've promised Aunt
Phoebe. You're not to take my politeness at its face value, for back of
it I shall dislike you all the time."

Grant's lips twitched, and there was a covert twinkle in his eyes,
though he looked around him with elaborate surprise.

"It's early in the day for mosquitoes," he drawled; "but I was sure I
heard one buzzing somewhere close."

"Aunt Phoebe ought to get a street roller to smooth your manners,"
Evadna observed pointedly.

"Instead it's as if she hung her picture of a Christmas angel up before
the wolf's den, eh?" he suggested calmly, betraying his Indian blood
in the unconsciously symbolic form of expression. "No doubt the wolf's
nature will be greatly benefited--his teeth will be dulled for his
prey, his voice softened for the nightcry--if he should ever, by chance,
discover that the Christmas angel is there."

"I don't think he'll be long in making the discovery." The blue of
Evadna's eyes darkened and darkened until they were almost black.
"Christmas angel,--well, I like that! Much you know about angels."

Grant turned his head indolently and regarded her.

"If it isn't a Christmas angel--they're always very blue and very
golden, and pinky-whitey--if it isn't a Christmas angel, for the Lord's
sake what is it?" He gave his head a slight shake, as if the problem was
beyond his solving, and flicked the ashes from his cigarette.

"Oh, I could pinch you!" She gritted her teeth to prove she meant what
she said.

"It says it could p