Mother would surely have managed it--somehow; and I should have had a lot of beaux--young men beaux I mean, like you. Father's friends are all so gray!--Oh, of course, I shall marry--some time," she continued evenly. "Probably I'm going to marry the British consul at Nunko-Nono. He's a great friend of Father's--and he wants me to help him write a book on 'The Geologic Relationship of Melanesia to the Australian Continent'!" Dully her voice rose to its monotone: "But I don't suppose--we shall live in a--house," she moaned apathetically. "At the best it will probably be only a musty room or two up over the consulate--and more likely than not it won't be anything at all except a nipa hut and a typewriter-table." As if some mote of dust disturbed her, suddenly she rubbed the knuckles of one hand across her eyes. "But maybe we'll have--daughters," she persisted undauntedly. "And maybe they'll have houses!" "Oh, shucks!" said Barton uneasily. "A--a house isn't so much!" "It--isn't?" asked little Eve Edgarton incredulously. "Why--why--you don't mean--" "Don't mean--what?" puzzled Barton. "Do--you--live--in--a--house?" asked little Eve Edgarton abruptly. Her hands were suddenly quiet in her lap, her tousled head cocked ever so slightly to one side, her sluggish eyes incredibly dilated. "Why, of course I live in a house," laughed Barton. "O--h," breathed little Eve Edgarton. "Re--ally? It must be wonderful." Wiltingly her eyes, her hands, drooped back to her scrap-book again. "In--all--my--life," she resumed monotonously, "I've never spent a single night--in a real house." "What?" questioned Barton. "Oh, of course," explained the girl dully, "of course I've spent no end of nights in hotels and camps and huts and trains and steamers and--But--What color is your house?" she asked casually. "Why, brown, I guess," said Barton. "Brown, you 'guess'?" whispered the girl pitifully. "Don't you--know?" "No, I wouldn't exactly like to swear to it," grinned Barton a bit sheepishly. Again the girl's eyes lifted just a bit over-intently from the work in her lap.