cross. She had on some perfume which he hated, and
a split skirt, and was altogether so inconvenient and uncongenial that
disagreeable things to say sat on the end of his tongue. He bit them
back, however, for he knew he should be sorry afterward if he were a
beast.

"You look as if you'd like to snap my head off," said Ena, fumbling
among his cigarettes.

"So I would. But I won't," said he. "It isn't you I mind. It's only
something that Raygan would call bally rot in the paper."

"Something about us?" Ena was alert in a moment.

"Only about me."

"Is _that_ all! You're so silly about having things in the paper!
Almost anything's better than nothing, I feel, as long as they don't
go raking up father's and mother's past. Oh, I know you think their
past's the best thing about them. Let's not argue. Does it say again
that you're engaged to Eileen?"

"No, thank heaven. I don't want to punch heads in her defence."

His sister laughed, and tried to make herself comfortable by putting
her feet up on the slippery whale. The split green cloth skirt fell
apart and showed a pink ankle clad in a tight-fitting film of green
silk stocking. Ena gazed at it appreciatively and liked the look of
her foot in a high-heeled green suede shoe with a gold buckle.

"My private opinion is that dear little Eileen was tickled to death by
the mistake. The only thing she didn't like about it was--its _being_
a mistake."

"If you talk like that, I'll wish the whale was Jonah's," said Petro.

"She does love you!" Ena got out hurriedly, fearing to be stopped, or
caught up in the surprisingly strong arms of Petro, and gently set
down on the wrong side of the door. "She does! She does! I've thought
so a long time. Now I know it. I mustn't tell you how."

"You oughtn't to tell me how. It isn't true and it isn't kind--to
either of us. I hate hearing such darned nonsense about a girl who
likes me as a friend. And she'd be mad as the dickens if she could
hear."

"Perhaps she'd be mad," Ena admitted, "because it _is_ true. If it
weren't she'd only laugh. You're a simple Simon not to see. Everybody
else with eyes does see. And they'll all be sorry for her if you don't
speak."

"Any one would think I was a dog and she was a bone," growled Petro.
"Speak, indeed! I wish you'd mind your own business, Ena."

"I am minding it as hard as I can," said his sister, "and you ought to
thank me for taking an interest in yours, too. Don't you _like_ poor