Pola accepted his banter good-naturedly. "I shall be deeply grateful, old dear, if you _will_ introduce me to any sensations I have not experienced before. There, now, will that hold you for awhile?" She turned to Sidney. "We quarrel like this all the time, but it's fun and I always have the last word. I make him so mad he can't think of anything withering enough to say and I seize that strategic moment to cease firing. You see, I practice on Dug. I _will_ come tomorrow if I may. Now, Duggie dear, lead me out of this funny lane or else I'll _never_ find my way back to mamma. Goodby, Miss Romley." Behind Pola's back Mr. Dugald cast such a despairing, apologetic and altogether furious look toward Sidney as to make Sidney suddenly laugh. And with her laugh all her sense of dismay and humiliation vanished. She forgot her red hands and the big gingham apron and the dishes spread about her in her amusement over Pola's pathetic attempt to be very grown-up and sophisticated. And _so_ ill-bred! How ashamed Mr. Dugald had been of her! Then a thought struck Sidney with such force that she sat down in the nearest chair. Why, if Mr. Dugald was Pola's own cousin, belonged to the grandeur that was Pola's, he would _never_ be attracted by poor, plain Trude. Her beautiful hopes were shattered! She felt distinctly aggrieved. However, there was Vick. Sidney hated to give Mr. Dugald to Vick, who always got everything, yet it seemed the only thing to do if any of the sisters were to have him. Almost sadly she went to her room, opened her satchel and took from it a small framed photograph of Victoria, a photograph which, while it did not flatter Victoria, paid full justice to her enticing beauty. Considering it, Sidney reflected on how lucky it was that at the last moment she had put the pictures of her sisters into her baggage. Then she carried it to the kitchen and stood it on the narrow mantel next to the clock where Mr. Dugald's eyes must surely find it. Unlike the snapshot of Trude the picture remained there undisturbed. CHAPTER XVII PEACOCKS Early the next day Pola appeared with Mr. Dugald in Sunset Lane in a simple garb that must have satisfied even her exacting cousin. Her mood was in accord with her attire as though she had left her sophistication behind with her silks and her rouge. She declared she felt as "peppy as they make them" and ready to do anything anyone suggested. And Mr. Dugald, resigned to wasting two weeks to entertaining his young cousin, of whom he was really very fond, promptly offered an astonishing assortment of suggestions from which he commanded the girls to choose. "Why, you wouldn't believe there were so many things to do!" cried Pola with real enthusiasm. "Sidney, you'll have to decide." And Sidney at once decided upon a tramp to Peaked Hill on the ocean side with an early picnic supper.