Maud hugged Peggy when she said good-bye in quite her old affectionate manner, and Muriel remembered to send her love to Lilian, and say she was sorry for her absence, a fact she had scarcely seemed to notice before.
As for Mr. Neville, Peggy confided to Aunt Helen, when she got home, that she liked him the best of any gentleman she had ever seen, next to Father.
'He's been out in India for ten years, Auntie—that's where he knew the Middletons—but he says he lived in England once, and used to come to Gorswen when grandfather was alive. Do you remember him?'
'I think I do,' replied Aunt Helen shortly, with a flush on the cheek that was still so smooth and pretty.
'Then don't you think,' persisted Peggy, 'that he is quite the nicest man you've ever met?'
'Go to bed, children,' said Aunt Helen. 'Here's Bobby so sleepy he can scarcely keep his eyes open. You shall tell me all about the party to-morrow.'
CHAPTER VIII
THE HOLIDAYS
'A little work, a little play,
To keep us going—and so, good-day!'
'No more Latin, no more Greek, no more cane to make me squeak!' sang Bobby on the fifteenth of July, springing out of the pony-trap before Pixie had stopped, and taking a flying leap over the pump-trough in the exuberance of his spirits.