"I am convinced she is Italian," Mary Lee differed from her sister. "She has such black eyes and hair, and I saw her with a letter in her hand that had an Italian stamp on it, and it was addressed to Signorina something or other."
This seemed fairly good proof, but still Miss Helen shook her head.
"She might be Spanish," ventured Jo, "for, as you say, Mary Lee, she is very dark. If she were Russian why doesn't she talk to the other Russians at the table?"
"I hadn't thought of that," said Nan, "though maybe she doesn't want them to know she is Russian for fear they will find out her plots."
Miss Helen laughed aloud. "You are away off, Nan," she said.
"Perhaps she is a Greek." Jack thought up this.
"Then she'd speak better German," objected Nan.
"What do you say, Mary?" asked Miss Helen. "No one so far has guessed right. You must have a chance."
"She might be French, perhaps Canadian French."
"But the Italian letter," spoke up Mary Lee.
"I had one from Italy myself this morning addressed to Signora Corner," Mrs. Corner told her.
"Then that falls through," said Jo. "Give it up, Miss Helen."
"My dears, she's plain, dyed-in-the-wool, United States American, from Chelsea, Massachusetts."
"Oh, oh," came a chorus of laughing exclamations. "The very idea! How did you find it out?"
"I encountered her on my way down-stairs this morning, and she asked me if I knew where she could find a second-hand book-shop. I happened to know of one and I told her. We were going in the same direction and we walked together a little way."
"Is she any kind of an anything?" asked Jack.
"That is rather a vague question," said Miss Helen. "Couldn't you be a little more exact, Jack dear?"
"I mean is she a doctor or a teacher or anything like that? She looks like she might be something besides just a plain woman."
"She certainly is a plain enough woman," remarked Nan with a laugh.
"She didn't mention that she had a profession, though I think she is here for a special purpose, perhaps," Miss Helen told them.
"American," said Jo reminiscently; "that's the limit. It shows that one can never tell. Why, we might have discussed our most intimate affairs before her, and never have dreamed she could understand a word of what we said."