"But if I may
ask, how on earth did you know that I sang?"
Bobby's eyes danced, and her submerged dimple came to the surface.
"I didn't," she said; "but they dared me to ask you, and I wouldn't take
a dare, would you?"
"I am afraid I don't quite follow you," said Percival.
"Well, you see," explained Bobby, "they dared me to ask you, and I didn't
mind, because I was dead sure you sang. A person ought to be able to do
anything with a voice like yours."
Percival stroked his small mustache meditatively.
"As a matter of fact, you know," he said in a tone from which the chill
had vanished, "I suppose an English voice is rather conspicuous among
Americans, isn't it?"
"Yours is," said Bobby; "that is, what I've heard of it."
And then she was gone like a flash, leaving the Honorable Percival to
cogitate upon the extraordinary manners of American girls, and a certain
cleverness they at times displayed. Lady Hortense Vevay, for instance,
had had four uninterrupted weeks in which to discover anything unusual
in his voice, and he must confess she had been rather stupid about it.
But why had that impossible young American ruined a pretty compliment by
her parting shot? Did she feel that she had any claim upon him? Did she
expect him to pay her any attention? Preposterous!
The first break in the lazy routine of the voyage came when the dim
outline of the Hawaiian Islands gradually took definite shape in the
form of old Diamond Head which loomed strangely out of the water.
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