Page:Aladdin O'Brien (1902).pdf/198

 For a little neither could find any words to say. So still they sat that Margaret could hear the muffled ticking of Peter's watch. At length Peter spoke.

"What shall I tell my father?" he said.

"Tell him—" said Margaret, and her voice broke.

"Aren't you sure, darling—is that it?"

She nodded with tears in her eyes.

He took his arm from round her waist, and she felt very lonely.

"But I'm always going to love you," he said.

She felt still more alone.

"Peter," she said, "I can't explain things very well, but I—I—don't want you to go away feeling as if—"

Manners' eyes lifted up.

"As if it was all over?" he asked eagerly.

"Almost that, Peter," she said. "I—I can't say yes now—but God knows, Peter, perhaps sometime—I—I can."

She was thinking of the flighty and moody Aladdin, who had loved her so