"_Ted_!"

"What? What? Oh, yeah--sorry, Elinor, I wasn't paying proper attention."

"You mean you were asleep, you big cheese!" from Peter.

"I wasn't--just thinking," and seeing that this only brought raucous mirth
from both Peter and Oliver, "Oh, shut up, you apes! Were you asking me
something, El?"

It was rather a change to come back from Elinor in scarab robes being
carried along in a litter to Elinor sitting beside him in a bathing suit.
But hardly an unpleasant change.

"I've forgotten how it goes on--the Dormouse--after 'Well in.' Do you
remember?"

"Nope. Look it up when we get back. And anyhow--" "What?"

"Game called for to-day. The Lirrups have started looking important--that
means it's about ten minutes of, they always leave on the dot. Well--"
and Peter rose, scattering sand. "We must obey our social calendar, my
prominent young friends--just think how awful it would be if we were the
last to go. Race you half-way to the float and back, Ted."

"You're on," and the next few minutes were splashingly athletic.

Going back to the bath-house, though, Ted laughed at himself rather
whimsically. That extraordinary day-dream of the slave and the
Elinor Princess! It helped sometimes, to make pictures of the very