The Priceless Pearl

								

finest Valenciennes lace. Pearl felt an instant conviction that this
was her future charge.
"Antonia," she said in her deep voice, and the child made a rush for
her.
"Are you Miss Exeter?" she exclaimed, and she gave a little boyish
shake to her head. "I must say I think you are much more than pleasing.
My mother said you'd be much less. She drew me a picture of what she
thought you'd look like. Mother doesn't draw very well. I'm glad you're
not like that. If I'd taken that as a guide I'd never have found you at
all."
She beckoned to a large green touring car, and having arranged about
Pearl's trunk and seen the bags put into the car, she herself sank
beside Pearl on the wide back seat, while to steady herself on the
slippery leather she raised one leg and clutched the back of the front
seat with her bare flexible toes.
"How do you like Southampton?" she said.
If they had gone down the main street Pearl would have seen some old
gray-shingled houses and elm trees that she would have honestly admired
but they had turned eastward and were now driving down a perfectly
straight road at the end of which, through a dip in the dunes, the deep
blue of the afternoon sea could be seen. The country was flat in every
direction except the north, where a wooded rise in the ground cut off
the horizon. To be candid, Pearl did not greatly admire the prospect,
but she said tactfully, "I love the sea."
"Can you swim?"
"Yes."
"Can you play tennis?"
"Yes."
"Can you drive a car?"
"No."
"Good!" said the child with her friendly smile. "I'm glad I've found
something you can't do. Beckett," she said, leaning forward and
shouting in the ear of the chauffeur, "I mean to teach Miss Exeter to
drive."
"Maybe it'd be as well to learn yourself first, miss," said the man
coldly.
Antonia sighed.
"Beckett's cross," she said, "because I bent the fender coming up. My
legs are too short to reach the foot brake in a hurry. Beckett knows
that, but he doesn't make allowances."
"Is it safe for you to drive, then?" asked Pearl.
"Well, if you ask me, no," said Antonia candidly; "but as long as
mother lets me do it, of course I'm going to. I wonder if you're going
to like us. I don't see how anyone could like Dolly."
"What's the matter with Dolly?"
"Oh, about everything," answered Antonia. "I'll tell you the kind of
person she is: If you forget something she asks you to do she treats
you as if you were a moron to have forgotten it, and if she forgets
something you ask her to do she treats you as if you were a moron to
have asked her to do it."
"There must be something to be said for her," Pearl suggested.
Antonia considered the question. She was, as her uncle had said, the
justest of created beings.
"I suppose there must be, but I don't know what it is. Then 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."