"Apples, strawberries, peaches--oh my!" cried Margery, a child for the nonce, "I should like to have as many as I could eat."
"Well, I dare say we can satisfy even your appetite. Come soon, and bring us some more poetry with you. Mr. Mallow and I must be going now. There, dear, you won't refuse that, will you?" and he slipped a half-sovereign into the child's hand.
"No," replied Margery the Communist. "'What's yours is mine'--father says so--but thank you very much, Mr. Aldean."
"Lord Aldean, Margery," corrected her mother.
"Father says there are no lords, mother; this is plain Mr. Aldean."
"There is a reflection on your lordship's good looks," said Mallow. "Well, Margery, when you begin cutting off heads, I hope you will spare us, eh?"
"Fear not," said Margery, dramatically; "I'll stand by you in the day of trial."
[CHAPTER VIII.]
JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER.
Save her honeymoon, probably the happiest time in a woman's life is the period of her engagement--the time when she is being adored by her lover, congratulated by her friends, and is delightfully employed in expecting and receiving the customary offerings of her friends and acquaintances, and in making those varied and numerous purchases which seem to be considered de rigueur on such occasions.