“Over here it seems too funny for anything,” went on Veronica, “but that’s the sort of thing I’ve been used to all my life.  Now I see how ridiculous it all was and how wicked, and it seems almost like a judgment that our estate was destroyed in the very first month of the war and we had to suffer such great hardships.  There was no bowing and scraping to us in that flight into the mountains, I can tell you.  It was everyone for himself then, and we were all in the same boat.”  Veronica closed her eyes for a moment and shuddered involuntarily as the horror of that remembered flight overcame her; she threw it off with an effort and presently proceeded in an entirely composed tone.  The Winnebagos, looking on with sympathetic understanding, marveled at her perfect poise and great power of self-control.

“It may seem strange to you girls,” went on Veronica, “you who are so patriotic about this American land of yours, that I should talk this way about the land of my birth, and maybe you will despise me.  But since I have been in America and have learned that people can live together in a much sweeter, fairer, truer way than I ever dreamed of, I could never go back to the old way.  I want to become an American and never wish to leave this country.  I don’t want to be called a Hungarian.  I want to be an American girl like the rest of you.  Oh, I think you are the most wonderful girls in the world!”

She paused to squeeze Sahwah’s hand, which rested on the arm of her chair.

“My uncle feels the same way about it as I do,” continued Sahwah.  “He became an American citizen ten years ago and is much more proud of his American citizenship than he ever was of his title.”

“Did your uncle have a title?” asked Hinpoha breathlessly.

“It was a sort of courtesy title,” answered Veronica, “because he was the youngest son of the baron, my grandfather, but, of course, he belonged in the family, which put him in the same class with the nobility.”

“Was your grandfather a baron?” asked Hinpoha incredulously.

Veronica nodded casually and went on talking about her uncle.

“My uncle ran away at the time he became of military age rather than go into the army.  All he cared for was music.  Of course there was quite a stir about it and he changed his name and took his grandmother’s maiden name, which was Lehar.  He has now adopted that name legally in this country, and is plain ‘Mr. Lehar.’”

“Then isn’t your name Lehar either?” asked Hinpoha, while a rustle of surprise went through the group.

“No,” replied Veronica in a perfectly matter-of-fact voice, “I simply assumed that name at his suggestion.  You see, as long as I intended to be an American, I wouldn’t have any further use for my title either——­”

“Oh-h-h-h!” exclaimed the Winnebagos in a long breath of astonishment. “Your title!  Have you got one, too?”

Veronica looked around with a little look of wonder at the sensation she had created.  “I did have,” she corrected gently.  “I haven’t it any more.  I left it behind me in Hungary.  I’m just plain Veronica Lehar now.”