there's Durland--he's great--only he doesn't notice me much. I wish I were a boy. I want to wear trousers and be free."
"You seem to me pretty fairly free."
Antonia laughed.
"That's funny," she said. "I mean it's funny that you said that exactly the way Uncle Anthony talks--that gentle tone that makes you feel like nothing at all. Do you like Uncle Anthony? Do you think he's handsome?"
"Yes, indeed I do," answered Pearl, with the modest enthusiasm which she thought under the circumstances Augusta would have allowed herself.
"So do I," said Antonia. "So does Miss Wellington, whose mother has the house next us. She took it before she knew Uncle Anthony was going to be away all summer--at least that's what mother and I think. Miss Wellington told me she thought him handsome and she said 'And you can tell him I said so,' but I didn't--for rather a spiteful reason; I thought she wanted me to."
"It sounds that way to me, too," said Pearl.
"I'm glad you like him," Antonia went on. "He likes you too. He telephoned mother about you. He said he had found a pearl--wasn't that funny?" It was funnier than Antonia knew. "So now mother always speaks of you as the priceless pearl. Mother's