He flung a little pout at me, and then archly demanded, “Aren’t you good-natured yet, Choseph?”

I shook my head.

“You will be when you see Lentala,” he said with mock melancholy. “Don’t you like girls?” he suddenly fired at me.

“Y—es,” I stammered consciously.

“You like Annabel!” with a spitfire touch on his tongue.

“I once liked, very much, a dear lad named Beelo more than any girl.”

Once liked Beelo!” His shining eyes were lances.

“I like him just as much yet—when he is Beelo.”

I knew by his start that the thin ice on which I walked was cracking.

“And what is he when he isn’t Beelo?”