Then he had remarked--making the most of the advantage of his years--that it frightened him quite enough to find himself dedicated to the entertainment of a little foreign girl.

There were girls he wasn't afraid of--he was quite bold with little Americans.

Thus it was that she had defended herself to the end--"Oh but I'm almost American too.

That's what mamma has wanted me to be--I mean LIKE that; for she has wanted me to have lots of freedom.

She has known such good results from it." She was fairly beautiful to him--a faint pastel in an oval frame: he thought of her already as of some lurking image in a long gallery, the portrait of a small old-time princess of whom nothing was known but that she had died young.