"Why—why, what do you mean?" stammered Barton.
"What do I mean?" quizzed little Eve Edgarton. "Why, I mean—that just once before I go off to Nunko-Nono—I'd like to be—attractive!"
"Attractive?" stammered Barton helplessly.
With all the desperate, indomitable frankness of a child, the girl's chin thrust itself forward.
"I could be attractive!" she said. "I could! I know I could! If I'd ever let go just the teeniest—tiniest bit—I could have—beaux!" she asserted triumphantly. "A thousand beaux!" she added more explicitly. "Only—"
"Only what?" laughed Barton.
"Only one doesn't let go," said little Eve Edgarton.
"Why not?" persisted Barton.
"Why, you just—couldn't—with strangers," said little Eve Edgarton. "That's the bewitchment of it."
"The bewitchment?" puzzled Barton.