"Yes, dear. She said you might come home sometimes—that she would not object to your coming to see us now and again, but—oh, Peggy, Peggy!" And poor Mrs. Pringle caught the little girl in her arms and kissed her passionately. "I hope we haven't been selfish," she continued, "but God gave you to us, and I cannot think it would be right to give you up for the sake of worldly advantages. No, I cannot think that! You have always had a happy home, have you not, Peggy?"
"Oh, so happy!" the little girl answered earnestly. "Why do you cry, mother—when I am not going to leave you?"
"I am very foolish, I dare say," said Mrs. Pringle. "But it hurts me to think Aunt Caroline could imagine I would give up my own child."
"Poor woman, she over-estimates the worth of her money," Mr. Pringle remarked, with a pitying note in his voice. "She does not understand that there are things even in this world not to be purchased with gold."
"Why should she want to adopt me?" questioned Peggy wonderingly, turning her flushed face towards her father. "It is not even as though I wasn't blind! Why doesn't she adopt some little girl who has no mother or father or brother to love her? Why should she want me?"
"Because, somehow, you have touched a soft spot in her heart, little Sunbeam," Mr. Pringle answered. "I can think of no other reason. Poor Miss Leighton! I am afraid she will be very disappointed when she hears we cannot favour her plan."
"Poor Aunt Caroline!" sighed Peggy. "Why can't she be friendly with us all, and come and see us and be nice like she was when she came to tea at Lower Brimley?" And she shook her head sorrowfully as she thought of the old lady, so rich in money, so poor in other ways.
Billy, looking at his sister, wondered at the regretful expression of her face. He could not tell, and he certainly would have been amazed, had he known that her tender heart was ready to pour a portion of the wealth of its affection upon her whom he regarded, not unnaturally, as one of the proudest and most disagreeable of people, and he felt triumphant as he reflected that Miss Leighton would be disappointed at finding herself balked in her selfish plan.
When, on the following day, Miss Leighton heard from Mr. Maloney that Mr. and Mrs. Pringle had considered her offer and courteously declined it, she made no comment on their decision whatever. But she was even more disappointed than Billy had anticipated she would be, and there was more of sorrow than of anger in her heart. Briefly she informed Barnes that Peggy's parents had refused to allow her to adopt the child.
"You were right, Barnes," she admitted with a sigh. "You thought my niece would refuse my offer, did you not?"