37/40 You know you _might_ like me!--some people do--but he'll never let you." And, bending forward, with her cup in both hands, and her radiant eyes peering over the edge of it, she threw a most seductive look at her new chaperon. The look seemed to say, "I've been taking stock of you, and--well!--I think I shan't mind you." Anyway, Mrs.Friend took it as a feeler and a friendly one. She stammered something in reply, and then sat silent while guardian and ward plunged into a war of chaff in which first the ward, but ultimately the guardian, got the better. Lord Buntingford had more resource and could hold out longer, so that at last Helena rose impatiently: "I don't feel that I have been at all prettily welcomed--have I, Mrs. He says I have been idle all the winter since the Armistice. |