“If you mean to be rude to me, I’ll…” began George, but got no further. Julian and Dick had burst into laughter.

“Oh George — you and Berta will be the death of us!” said Julian. “Here are you doing all you can to pretend to be a boy — and here is Berta doing all she can to get out of it? For goodness sake, let’s settle the matter without any more bickering. We’ll call Berta Robert.”

“No — that’s too like Berta,” said Dick. “It ought to be a completely different name. We’ll call her a good plain boy’s name like Jim or Tom or John.”

“No,” said Berta. “I don’t like any of them. Let me have my second name, please.”

“What’s that? Another girl’s name?” asked Julian.

“Yes. But it’s used for a boy too only then it’s spelt differently,” said Berta. “It’s Lesley. It’s a nice name, I think.”

“Lesley. Yes — it rather suits you,” said Julian. “It suits you better than Berta. We’ll call you Lesley — and people will think it’s Leslie spelt l-i-e at the end, and not l-e-y. All right. Everything’s settled.”

“Not quite,” said his aunt. “I just want to say that you mustn’t let Berta — I mean Lesley — out of your sight at all. And you must report at once any mysterious happening or any stranger you see. The local police here know that we have Lesley with us, and why — and anything can be reported to them at once. They also are keeping a good look-out, of course.”

“This almost sounds as if we’re in the middle of an adventure!” said Dick, looking pleased.

“I hope not,” said his aunt. “I don’t imagine that anyone will ever guess Berta — I mean Lesley — is anything more than she will appear to be — a boy friend of yours and Julian’s, come to stay for a while. Dear me, it’s going to be difficult to refer to HER and HIM all the time!”

“It certainly is,” said Julian, standing up. “If you’ll give me some money, Aunt Fanny, I’ll go and do a little shopping for Lesley. What size do you think HE needs?”

Everyone laughed. “HE wears size three shoes,” said Joan, smiling. “I noticed that this morning.”

“And HE will have to get used to doing his coat buttons up on the right-hand side instead of on the left,” said Anne, joining in the fun.

“SHE will soon get used to that!” said George. “Won’t SHE, Timmy?”

“Don’t spoil it all now, George,” said Julian. “A slip of the tongue, saying SHE instead of HE, might lead to danger for Ber — I mean Lesley.”

“Yes, I know,” said George. “It’s just that she’ll never look like a boy, and…”

“I don’t want to look like a boy,” said Berta. “I think you look…”

“Here we go again!” said Julian. “Stop it, Lesley, stop it, George. George, you’d better come out and help me to get the things for Lesley. Come on. And take that scowl off your face. You look like a sulky girl!”