"Let me hear your thousand first," retorted the coquette disdainfully, "ere I make up my mind to be damned."
Major Parr said grimly:
"With what are we others to trade, who can make no verses? Is there not some more common form of wampum that you might consider?"
"A kind and unselfish heart is sound currency," said Lana smiling and turning her back on Boyd; which brought her to face Lois.
"Do make a toast in verse for these importunate gentlemen," she said, "and bring the last laggard to your feet."
"I?" exclaimed Lois in laughing surprise. Then her face altered subtly. "I may not dream to rival you in beauty. Why should I challenge you in wit?"
"Why not? Your very name implies a nationality in which elegance, graceful wit, and taste are all inherent." And she curtsied very low to Lois.
For a moment the girl stood motionless, her slender forefinger crook'd in thought across her lips. Then she glanced at me; the pink spots on her cheeks deepened, and her lips parted in a breathless smile.
"It will give me a pleasure to do honour to any wish expressed by anybody," she said. "Am I to compose a toast, Euan?"
I gazed at her in surprise; Major Parr said loudly: "That's the proper spirit!"