done so. She saved me out of the scrape as far as she was concerned;
she might have made it ten times the muss it was. I'd rather run
down a whole flock of sheep than graze the varnish off a woman's
wheel, as a general principle. There's real backbone to Sylvie
Argenter, besides her prettiness. My father would like her, I know.
Why don't you bring her here; get intimate with her? I can't do
it,--too fierce, you know."

Amy Sherrett laughed.

"What a nice little cat's-paw a sister makes! Doesn't she, Rod?"

"I wonder if cats don't like chestnuts too, sometimes," said Rod;
and then he whistled.

"What a worry you are, Rod!" said Amy, with a little frown that some
pretty girls have a way of making; half real and half got up for the
occasion; a very becoming little pucker of a frown that seems to put
a lovely sort of perplexed trouble into the beautiful eyes, only to
show how much too sweet and tender they really are ever to be
permitted a perplexity, and what a touching and appealing thing it
would be if a trouble should get into them in any earnest. "In term
time I'm always wishing it well over, for fear of what dreadful
thing you may do next; and when it is vacation, it gets to be so
much worse, here and there and everywhere, that I'm longing for you
to be safe back in Cambridge."

"Coming home Saturday nights? Well, you do get about the best of me
so. And we fellows get just the right little sprinkle of family
influence, too. It loses its affect when you have it all the time.