At this Jeanie raised her head. “Are you telling me the truth, Nancy?”
“Of course I am. You shouldn’t say that even if I have teased you. You know I always tell the truth.”
“How came you to think of that—of talking about me?”
“Because—” It was Agnes’s turn to hang her head. “You said once when you wanted to please Archie and get him to do anything for you that you had but to talk of me.”
“Then—now tell me the truth, since you know my secret—do you like Archie?”
“Yes—I like him, but I do not like to think of marrying any one. I will not think of it till I see my mother again.”
“But we are as old as our mothers were when they were married.”
“Yes, and older than Polly, who was but fifteen, and is now only twenty-four. But I want to wait, so don’t fash me about it, Jeanie, till my mother comes. I am in no haste.”
“No more am I, though I—I—”
“Yes, I know; you—you—will wait for David, and you will not have long to wait if you but give him half a chance.”