"Oh!" she cried in surprise; "how can they do it so quickly? I'm sure I couldn't put my room at home in good order in less than ten minutes."
"But, then, you're not a boy, you know," laughed Max.
"I'm quite as smart as if I were," she returned promptly. "Isn't that so, Papa?"
"I have known some boys who were not particularly bright," he answered, with an amused look. "Perhaps you might compare quite favourably with them."
"Oh, Papa!" she exclaimed; "is that the best you can say about me?"
"I can say that my daughter seems to me to have as much brain as my son, and of as good quality," he replied kindly, refilling her plate as he spoke; "and I very much doubt his ability to put a room in order more rapidly than she can, and at the same time equally well," he concluded.
"Well, it's a sort of womanish work anyhow,—isn't it, Papa?" queried Max, giving Lulu another laughing look.
"I don't see it so," replied his father. "I would be sorry to admit, or to think, that women have a monopoly of the good qualities of order and cleanliness."
"I, too, sir," said Max; "and I'm quite resolved to do my father credit in that line as well as others, at the academy and elsewhere."
"Are we going at once, Papa?" Lulu asked as they left the table.