"Nell, I believe you are nervous! You're not? Very well; then stand up
and look me in the face, and say 'Mesopotamia' seven times!"

It was the night of the dinner party at the Hall, at which, as Dick put
it, she was to be "on view" as the fiancée of my lord of Angleford, and
Nell had come down to the little sitting room dressed and ready to
start.

Dick and Falconer were also ready, for Falconer had recovered
sufficiently to be present, and had voluntarily offered to take his
violin with him.

"Don't tease her, Dick," said Falconer, with the gentle, protective air
of an elder brother. "She does not look a bit nervous."

"But I am!" said Nell, laughing a little tremulously; "I am--just a
little bit!"

"And no wonder!" said Falconer promptly. "It is rather an ordeal she has
to go through; to know that everybody is regarding you critically. But
she has nothing to be afraid of."

"Now, there I differ with you," said Dick argumentatively. "If I were in
Nell's place I should feel that everybody was thinking: 'What on earth
did Lord Angleford see in that slip of a girl to fall in love with?' Ah,
would you?" as Nell, laughing and blushing, caught up the sofa cushion.
"You throw it and rumple my best hair, if you dare."