Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/247

Peterkin that it would be as amusing to her as it is to the rest of us. She has high principles, you see. Even a friendship with Diana has its disadvantages. She expects so much of one that it is difficult to live up to her ideals, don't you think? It's rather a strain sometimes to reach the high-water mark of her approval. But of course you never feel like that."

"We needn't rake up the past like this," he said hastily. "And I would rather you didn't say anything more against Di. She's altered my whole life. A man must have some one to reverence; to idealize; to put on a pedestal, don't you know. She's changed me from a lazy, good-for-nothing beggar into—" he hesitated.

"Into what, Georgie?"

"She's made me buck up, and given me something to live for."

"Herself?"

"She found me"—Georgie rushed into strange, wild metaphor—"wallowing in muddy waters; muddy with lost ideals and half-forgotten schemes; She found me 231