“Well, you know I’m not. Neither of them is by way of being a bit deceived. And, in spite of their jealousy, they’re such good sports over it all, too. They are so fearfully polite to each other outwardly. No fear of a duel there even if it wasn’t out of date.”

“You wouldn’t want a man to risk his life for you, would you?” demanded Pat.

“No…no.” For a moment Rae looked serious. “But I think I’d like to have him willing to risk it. I wonder if either Bruce or Peter would be that. However, they are getting no end of thrills out of it. It’s a kind of race, you know, and men enjoy that ever so much more than a tame courtship. Sometimes I think I’ll decide it by lot…I really do. They seem so evenly balanced. If Peter’s nose is not all I would fondly dream neither are Bruce’s ears. And their names are nice. That’s something. How awful it would be to marry a man who had one of those terrible names in Dickens! Judy, do you think Bruce will be fat by the time he is forty? I’m afraid I wouldn’t love him then. There is no danger of that with Peter. He’ll always be thin as a snipe. But he has rosy cheeks. I don’t like rosy cheeks in men. I prefer them pale and interesting. And will his mother like me?”

“It wudn’t be inny great odds if she didn’t, Cuddles dear,” said Judy, who was enjoying Rae’s “nonsense” immensely. “The woman has no great gumption. I used to be hearing she was one to give her fam’ly b’iling hot soup on a dog-day. Peter do be getting his sinse from his father’s side.”

“Last night I almost told him I’d marry him. But I had sense enough to know it was just the moon. I could be in love with anybody when the moon is just right. Pat, don’t look so disapproving. You’ve no right to. You’ve been known to change your mind. I wish I could make up my mind…I really do. It’s so wearing. I never thought I could be in such a predicament.”

“I don’t believe you care a pin for either of them,” said Pat impatiently.

“Pat, I do…I really do. That is the exasperating part of it…the part that doesn’t square with books.”

“Why not send them both packing and go on with your college course? You used to want to be a doctor.”

Rae sighed.