“He isn’t a bit afraid of women,” affirmed Leonore.
Just then Mr. Beekman came up. “Er—Mrs. Rivington. You know this is—er—a sort of house-warming, and they tell me we are to go over the house, don’t you know, if we wish. May I harve the pleasure?”
Dorothy conferred the boon. Peter looked down at Leonore with a laugh in his eyes. “Er—Miss D’Alloi,” he said, with the broadest of accents, “you know this,—er—is a sort of a house-warming and—” He only imitated so far and then they both laughed.
Leonore rose. “With pleasure. I only wish Mrs. Grinnell had heard you. I didn’t know you could mimic?”
“I oughtn’t. It’s a small business. But I am so happy that I couldn’t resist the temptation.”
Leonore asked, “What makes you so happy?”
“My new friend,” said Peter.
Leonore went on up the stairs without saying anything. At the top, however, she said, enthusiastically: “You do say the nicest things! What room would you like to see first?”
“Yours,” said Peter.
So they went into the little bedroom, and boudoir, and looked over them. Of course Peter found a tremendous number of things of interest. There were her pictures, most of them her own purchases in Europe; and her books and what she thought of them; and her thousand little knick-knacks of one kind and another. Peter wasn’t at all in a hurry to see the rest of the house.