"What did I say?"
"Didn't you know that you said 'give 'em?' You must be very careful not to get excited to-day or you will make no end of mistakes."
Meg felt as if a wet blanket had been thrown over her, but she soon recovered her spirits as the sun was shining and the birds singing, and moreover she heard in the distance the sound of hammering which told her that men were already engaged in putting up the platform on the lawn.
After breakfast she ran out to see how they were getting on. Two men were engaged on the work; one man's face she knew well as he was often employed in various jobs about the Court; the other, whose back was turned towards her, was a stranger; but something in his build produced a curious sensation of shock in the girl. The head and shoulders were so remarkably like those of Jem.
She was within only a few feet of the platform and had asked the man facing her when it would be finished, when she noticed his companion who did not raise his head.
Meg hastily made up her mind that though the likeness was remarkable it could not possibly be Jem, or he would have turned round at the sound of her voice. Nevertheless she was glad to escape into the house again, as the likeness took away her breath and gave her a strange sensation of fear.
As Meg turned away the man whom she had noticed looked round and watched her. His bright blue eyes in a moment took in every item of her dress, and the fact that the sun was shining on her lovely hair turning its auburn to gold. Had it not been for her hair and indeed for her atmosphere, which was unmistakable to the man who loved her as his own soul, he would scarcely have recognised her, for her voice had changed and her way of speaking, not to mention the extraordinary difference that clothes make.
Meg was in a white cotton frock, so white and clean it looked to Jem, that it had almost the same effect upon him that the sight of angels wings might have had. He straightened himself when he discovered that her head was turned away, and gazed wonderingly after her.
"Thank God," he cried in his heart, but the man by his side only saw the wonder displayed on his fellow worker's face.
"She's a beauty, ain't she?" he said following Jem's example and watching Meg's hasty retreat to the house. "They do say as how Miss Dennison picked her out of the gutter; but that's all moonshine. She's a queen if ever there was one."