e dining-room.
Jimmie doesn't get much sleep you know--we keep it up so late, and of
course you always wake him up when you turn out for your swim at six
o'clock in the morning, so if you will promise not to disturb us until
seven, and go out through the kitchen for your swim, you can have our
room for to-night."

"Oh, I say!" he replied, "that's awfully jolly of you. It _is_ a beastly
shame to turn the old man out of his bed two nights in one week, but
your boat is the only one on the river where a fellow feels at home, you
know. Besides that, I couldn't get back to town before ten o'clock
to-night if I started now, and where would I get my dinner? And if I
wait to get my dinner here, I'd either have to sleep at Henley or be
half the night in getting home. So you see I've got to stay, and thanks
awfully for letting me have your room."

Bee, who was standing near, pushed her veil up and cleared her throat.
She looked at me.

"Did you ever in all your life?" she said.

"No, I never did," I said. "I never, never did."

"Never did what?" said the English gentleman.

"I never saw anybody like you in a book or out of it, but I suppose
there are ten thousand more just as good-looking as you are; just as
tall and well built and selfish."

"Selfish," he blurted out with a very red face. "What is there selfish
about me, I should like to know? You offered me your room, didn't you?"

"Yes, she offered it," said Bee, sitting on a little table and tucking
her feet on a chair. "She offered it to you just to see if you'd take
it--just to see how far you _would_ go. You haven't known my sister very
long, have you? Why, she'd no more let you have her room than I would
let Jimmie turn himself out a second time for you. If you stay to-night
_you'll_ be the one to sleep in the dining-room on that narrow bench."

"Oh, I say," he said, turning still redder, "I can't do that, you know.
It would be so very uncomfortable. It is very narrow."

"You can lie on your side," said Bee. "You aren't too thick through that
way, and we three women have decided to allow Jimmie to go to bed early
to-night. We'll make it as comfortable as we can for you, and you'll get
fully three hours' sleep, perhaps four. It is all Jimmie would get if he
slept there."

"Why, I don't believe that the old man will let me sleep there. I think
he'd rather I had his room. He and his wife were so awfully good to me
when I was in America. I stayed two months at the