"Thanks!--I didn't intend to borrow, I have a better idea than that. I was reading a magazine the other day, and came upon a list of prize competitions. The first prize offered was thirty pounds, and I'm going to win that prize. The microscope costs only twenty pounds, but the extra ten would come in usefully for--I'll tell you about that later on! The _Piccadilly Magazine_ is very respectable and all that sort of thing, but the governor is one of the good old-fashioned, conservative fellows, who would be horrified if he saw my name figuring in it. I'm bound to consider his feelings, but all the same I'm going to win that prize. It says in the rules--I've read them through carefully--that you can ask your friends to help you, so that there would be nothing unfair about going into partnership with someone else. What I was going to suggest was that you and I should collaborate. I'd rather work with you than with any of the others, and I think we could manage it rather well between us. Our contribution should be sent in in your name, that is to say, if you wouldn't object to seeing yourself in print." "I should love it. I'm proud of my name, and it would be a new sensation." But Peggy spoke in absent-minded fashion, as if her thoughts were running on another subject. Rob had used a word which was unfamiliar in her ears, a big word, a word with a delightful, intellectual roll, and she had not the remotest idea of its meaning. Collaborate! Beautiful! Not for worlds would she confess her ignorance, yet the opportunity could not be thrown away. She must secure the treasure and add it to her mental store. She put her head on one side, and said pensively: "I shall be most happy to er--er----In what other words can I exactly express 'collaborate,' Rob? I do so object to repetition!" "Go shags!" returned Robert briefly. "I would do the biggest part of the work, of course, that's only fair, because I want two-thirds of the money, but you could do what you liked, and have ten pounds for your share. Ten pounds would come in very usefully for Christmas." "Rather! I'd get mother and father lovely presents, and Mrs. Asplin too; and buy books for Esther, and a little gold ring for Mellicent--it's her idea of happiness to have a gold ring. I'll help you with pleasure, Rob, and I'm sure we shall get the prize. What have we to do? Make up some poetry?"