Page:The principal girl (IA principalgirl00snai).pdf/184

 not even when he had scored those three goals against Scotland, had Mr. Philip shown more invincible determination than at this moment. If there was not to be a scene in Piccadilly and a paragraph in the evening papers, Mary would have to do as she was told.

"Phil-ipp, you are behaving anyhow."

"Less of it, Polly."

"Less of what, Phil-ipp?"

"Your cheek—you cat."

Unbridled insolence, which we are sure no girl of refined instincts and decent nurture—do you think so, Madam? All the same, that is the manner in which Phil-ipp admonished her, and her salary was a hundred a week, and was likely to be two hundred presently; and the ex-non-commissioned officer on duty at the entrance to the Burlington Arcade pricked up his ears disapprovingly at such language being used to a lady; and his trained observation told him she was a lady, although her face had rather more powder on it than it ought to have had; and he wondered whether he would have permitted himself to use such language in such circumstances when he was a young chap in the Guards with one stripe a-courtin' the Missus; and whether the Missus would have had him in spite of his uniform if he had courted her in that way; and whether she wouldn't have been quite right; and