“Why can’t you come?” urged John the second, tugging at her hand. “Uncle John wants you, and so do I. Why can’t you come?”
“Miss Annersley has her aunt’s guests to entertain, John,” Mr Musgrave explained. “I am afraid we can’t prefer our claim.”
“She isn’t Miss Annersley, she’s Peggy,” the boy corrected. “Aren’t you?”
Peggy laughed.
“Sometimes I am,” she admitted. “But that’s a special privilege, John.”
“What’s that?” asked John junior.
Mr Musgrave, with a hand on his small nephew’s shoulder, undertook to answer this question.
“It is something you enjoy on account of your youth, and from which I am debarred, though I should better appreciate it, on account of my age. Youth has advantages.”
“I don’t think,” said Peggy, looking amused, “that he is the least bit wiser for your very able explanation.”
“Perhaps,” he suggested, “you can put it more plainly.”