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60 Chessingham and Miss Maywood, and did not hear this colossal fib, which would not have ranked as a fib at all in Letty's birthplace. But Miss Maywood heard it with a thrill of disgust. Not so Sir Archy. He had found out by that time that the typical American girl—not the sham English one, which sometimes is evolved from an American seedling—is prone to say flattering things to men, which cannot always be taken at their face value. Nevertheless, he liked the process, and showed his white teeth in a pleasant smile.

"And," continued Letty, with determined cajolery, "you really must not treat me with the utter neglect you 've shown me for the last ten days."

"Neglect, by Jove," said Sir Archy, laughing. "It seems to me that the neglect you complain of keeps me on the go from morning till night. When I am not doing errands for you I am reading up on subjects that I have never thought essential to a polite education before, but which you seem to think anybody but a Patagonian would know."

Nothing escaped Miss Maywood's ears. "The brazen thing," she thought indignantly to herself. "Pretending that she would n't