Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/170

 I'll make you very happy. Look, dear, I won't ask for anything now but the right to care for you and look after you. Just trust me, girl dear. Won't you?"

She shook her head, dipping her spoon in and out of her coffee. "Don't spoil it, please. It's such a nice evening so far."

"There might be so many, many of them, Peggy," he said wistfully, "just as nice. And no more rotten newspapers and tiresome running about town. A home of your own, Peggy, with everything"

"But a wedding ring?" she asked smilingly.

He flushed. "Is that quite fair?" he muttered.

"Probably not," she replied a trifle cynically. "But are women ever—quite fair?"

"I think you could be very fair."

"Could be, yes; perhaps we all could be; but we're not very often. But I'll try to be with you. So I take it back—about the—the ring."

"No, you are right, Peggy," he said gloomily. "I'm a brute. It would serve me right if you never spoke to me again." He drained his glass and studied it a moment moodily before he pushed