"You do look smart, Bertha!" he remarked. "Your shoes are always so frightfully right. I say, can't you tell mother to wear the same sort of shoes? And tell her to look narrower, and not have such high collars." "My dear boy, your mother dresses beautifully," said Bertha. "What do you want her to look like?" "I should like her to look like some of those little cards on cigarette boxes, or like a picture post-card, if you want to know," he admitted candidly. "That's absurd, Cliff." "But, Bertha, some of the fellows' mothers do." "Remember your mother is _Percy's_ mother, too." "Pickering's mother doesn't look much older than you," he replied. "Oh--what a horrid woman!" He smiled. "Why do you call her a horrid woman? For not looking older than you?" "Oh! tell her to mind her own business, and not go interfering with me. I shall look whatever age I choose without consulting her!" Bertha pretended to pout and be offended, and went on reading for a little while. He took another chocolate and turned a page. She did not ask to see the book. "That's what I call so jolly about you," presently said Clifford. "When I come to see you, you don't keep asking me questions, or giving me things, or advice, or anything. You do what you like, and I do what I like--I mean to say, we both do just what we like." "Yes; that's the way to be pleasant companions," said Bertha. "I go your way, and you go mine." "How's Percy?" the boy asked presently. "Percy's the same as usual. Only I fancy he seems a little depressed." Presently Clifford looked up and said: "Anyway, you'll think it over, Bertha; and see what you decide to do about asking Pickering?" "Rather!" said Bertha, turning a page absently. "He's rather a wonderful chap, then?" "Isn't he!" "What sort?" "What _sort_?" cried Clifford, dropping his book. "Why, Bertha, I was _with_ him, _actually with him_, when he went into the country post office and asked the woman if she would let him have small change for ten shillings, and he found he hadn't the half-sovereign then, but would pay her when he didn't see her again! And then he said if she wouldn't do that, he'd like to buy some stamps, and asked if she'd show him some to choose from. And then he said--I saw him do it--'I'll take those two in the middle--I like the colour.' When she said they were fivepence he said that was too expensive, and he couldn't run to it. And then he wanted to buy some sweets--they sell everything at those country shops--and she wrapped some up for him, and then he said he hadn't got a penny, and would she put it down to Lord Arthur's account--that's an uncle of his who didn't know anything about it, and hadn't got any account. And when she refused, fancy, Bertha! he asked if she'd take stamps, as she seemed fond of them, and when she said she would, he stamped twice on the floor and ran out of the shop, and I ran after him. She _was_ angry!" "He seems a useful boy."