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.
"Crying!" repeated Nina incredulously.

Then, disarmed by the serene frankness of the girl, she added: "A blue-stocking is bad enough, but a grimy one is impossible.

_Allons! Vite_!" she insisted, driving Eileen before her; "the country is demoralising you.