Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/54

The Loom of Destiny affection. Then she slipped away from him, in shamed silence, as a woman might.

"And shan't we have fun though, eh, Peggy?" said Ali Baba.

Peggy looked at the other girl, and saw the unspoken misery on her face. Then Ali Baba caught her up in his big arms and she forgot again.

"Won't we, though! And Hawkins won't be here, and we'll play trolley cars in the brougham, and we'll unbury the dead cat and have another funeral, and you can throw green apples at the Browns' gardener."

"And we'll play hare and hounds," said Ali Baba, "and piggie-in-the-hole, and French and English, and—and all the rest! And you'll be my girl after this, my sure-enough girl, and never go back on me, and you'll wait for me, and we'll marry each other some day and be happy ever afterwards."

When Ali Baba went away, Peggy sat wrapped in thought for some time. A new world had opened up for her. She sighed.

"You don't really care, do you, Aunt Frankie?" she asked with great gravity. 42