"I don't know what I should do," Peggy said. "I like the people I like awfully. I'd rather be with them than be bothered. I don't see much use in being married, anyway."
"Sometimes," Elizabeth said, "I've thought it might be rather nice to be just married."
"Well, Ruth, she's a puzzle to me. Something's eating her—'scuse my elegance—I don't know whether it's wanting to be married, or not wanting to be. She told Mother that she'd rather be the wife of a poor man that she was keen on, than to have a million. Mother said that Piggy Chambers had four million. Ruth said that made about two, or one and one half, since the purchasing power of a dollar was so reduced. I didn't know Ruthie had it in her to talk back that way. Mother said that the purchasing power of a dollar was reduced for our family as well as anybody's, did she ever think of that? And that girls were an expensive luxury nowadays. Whereupon Ruthie said that she hadn't thought of that, but she would, if that was the way Mother looked at it. Mother said it wasn't, but that was the way somebody a little more practical than Ruthie might have looked at it for themselves. Then she said that Ruth had been playing with Piggy, or nobody would have had any reason to think of the matter at all. It was all pretty raw, you know. I wouldn't tell any other soul on earth, but someway you are different."
"A lot of people tell me things," Elizabeth said, "and I love Ruth."
"Your family is different," Peggy sighed. "If Ruthie and I lived all alone, we'd be different. I wish you'd come on over to the house with me, Elizabeth. I'm honestly almost afraid to go home. The atmosphere is so thick, you couldn't cut it with a knife unless it had just been sharpened."
"All right, I will," said Elizabeth. "I was coming over there anyway. Grandma thought it would cheer me up. I've been sort of mopey, myself."
"Well, it's about as cheerful in the cottage as if it was a nice, cozy morgue, but perhaps we can amuse ourselves with croquet and raspberry shrub. Truth compels me to state that Cook has just completed a mocha-frosted cake with an icing about six feet high. Do we get any of that? The answer is, probably not, but while there is life there is hope."
"Do you know that you have an awfully funny mind, Peggy? Amusing, I mean, and brilliant."
"That's a pretty embarrassing way for you to talk to an old friend," Peggy said, but she blushed in spite of her light laugh.
"Hello! Daddy's come," she cried, as they approached the Farraday porch. "That makes it even more exciting, doesn't it?"