"I suppose you call that thing a ship," she remarked
contemptuously. "Who ever heard of a pink ship? Hoo-hoo!"

I stifled my wrath, knowing that in order to score properly it
was necessary to keep a cool head.

"There is a pink ship," I observed with forced calmness, "lying
in the toy-shop window now. You can go and look at it if you
like. D'you suppose you know more about ships than the fellows
who make 'em?"

Selina, baffled for the moment, returned to the charge presently.

"Those are funny things, too," she observed. "S'pose they're
meant to be trees. But they're BLUE."

"They ARE trees," I replied with severity; "and they ARE
blue. They've got to be blue, 'cos you stole my gamboge last
week, so I can't mix up any green."

"DIDN'T steal your gamboge," declared Selina, haughtily,
edging away, however, in the direction of Harold. "And I
wouldn't tell lies, either, if I was you, about a dirty little
bit of gamboge."

I preserved a discreet silence. After all, I knew SHE knew
she stole my gamboge.

The moment Harold became conscious of Selina's stealthy approach,