"But what's your secret, Maud, without this silly nonsense?"
"Not while water runs nor grass grows," said Maud in mock solemnity, buttoning on her gloves.
With an air of resignation Eugenia walked up to the pole. She was taller and heavier than Maud. Consequently, when she stretched out her long arms and took hold, her knees bent ungracefully a foot above the floor. Maud slipped behind her sister to hide her amusement.
"Now, draw yourself up with all your might," she cried. "You must put your chin on top of the pole."
"I can't!" exclaimed Eugenia, who, with all her tugging, could only raise herself a few inches and then let herself suddenly down again.
"You must!" said Maud; "any child could do better than that."
After another strenuous effort Eugenia stopped in disgust.
"There," she exclaimed, sitting down to rest. "I have humored you in your childish folly, what have you to say to repay me for my trouble?"
"Well," returned Maud, unbuttoning her coat and taking a seat opposite her sister. "It's about Captain Morris. When I was at Pennington's last night he was there. From pure accident we were alone in the library for a short time, and he proposed to me."
"Humph! that's the third young man who has been silly enough to do it already this year."
"I can't help that," said Maud, gravely. "If they have no better sense than to be enamored with my poor face, I am sure I am not responsible."
"You are not, eh? And what was your decision this time?"
"Just what you might expect. After declaring the grand passion, instead of asking for a return of his love, he requested permission to at once ask father for my hand. I suppose that's the English way of doing it."
"That my surprise was very great, I couldn't think of such a thing, and that I was too young and inexperienced even to dream of love."
"Captain Morris is of good family and very wealthy," said Eugenia, reflectively. "His father left a fine estate in the south of England, I understand; and the Captain is his eldest son and heir."
"I don't care what estates he has," was Maud's quick rejoinder; "if I ever marry a man it must be for what he is, not what he has."
"Very true, my dear," returned Eugenia, who viewed things generally from a material standpoint. "Quite correct sentiments, but I have sometimes noticed that incidental fortunes are not necessarily a bar to matrimony. Usually they are the reverse. And Captain Morris himself is irreproachable."