From the first, she told every one of her engagement. The thought of it, always in her mind, helped to give her confidence and poise.
"You must have heard of me, you know," said her first dinner partner, "for your sister's told me a lot about YOU. Piet van Soop."
"Piet van SOOP!" ejaculated Sammy, seriously.
"Certainly. Don't you think that's a pretty name?"
"But—but that can't be your name," argued Sammy, smilingly.
"Why can't it?"
"Why, because no one with a name like van Soop to begin with would name a little darling baby PIET," submitted Sammy.
"Oh, come," said Mr. van Soop. "Your own name, now! Sammy, as Mary always calls you—that's nothing to boast of, you know, and I'll bet you were a very darling little baby yourself!"
Sammy laughed joyously, and a dozen fellow guests glanced sympathetically in the direction of the fresh, childish sound.
"Well, if that's really your name, of course you can't help it," she conceded, adding, with the naivete that Mr. van Soop already found delightful: "Wouldn't the COMBINATION be awful, though! Sammy van Soop!"