was difficult to draw out. Across the
room, Harriet Hamlin chanced to mention the name of Peter Dillon. At
once the little Chinese girl's expression changed. The change was very
slight. Hardly a shade of emotion crossed her unexpressive, Oriental
face, but curious Barbara was watching for that very change. She
remembered the young girl had been affected by Peter's appearance during
their former visit.

"Do you like Mr. Dillon?" inquired Bab. She had no excuse for her
question except her own wilful curiosity.

But Wee Tu was not to be caught napping.

"Lige?" she answered, with a soft rising inflection that made the "k" in
"like" sound as "g." "I do not know what Americans mean by the
word--'Lige.' You 'lige' so many people. A Chinese girl 'liges' only a
few--her parents, her relatives; sometimes she 'liges' her husband, but
not always."

"Don't like your husband!" exclaimed Bab in surprise. "Why, what do
you mean?"

The little Chinese maiden was confused both by the American word and the
American idea.

"The Chinese girl has respect for her husband; she does what he tells her
to do, but she does not all the time 'lige' him, because her father has
chosen him for her husband. I shall marry a prince, when I go back to
China, but he is 'verra' old."

"Oh, I see!" Bab rejoined. "You thought I meant 'love' when I said
'like.' It is quite different to love a person." Bab smiled wisely. "To
love is to like a great deal."

"Then I love this Mr. Peter Dillon," said the Chinese girl sweetly.

Bab gasped in shocked surprise.

"It is most improper that I say so, is it not?" smiled Miss Wee Tu. "But
so many things that American girls do seem improper to Chinese ladies.
And I do like this Mr. Peter very much. He comes always to our house. He
is 'verra' intimate with my father. He talks to him a long, long time and
they have Chinese secrets together. Then he talks with me so that I can
understand him. Many people will not trouble with a Chinese girl, who is
only fifteen, even if her father is a minister."

Barbara was overwhelmed with Wee Tu's confidence, but she knew she
deserved it as a punishment for her curiosity. The strangest thing was
that the young Chinese girl spoke in a low, even voice, without the least
change of expression in her long, almond eyes. Any one watching her would
have thought she was talking of the weather.

"I go back to China when my father's time in the United States is over
and then I get ma