“Yes,” she whispered back.
“Then catch this,” he whispered again and he threw up the end of a string and she caught it the first throw. It was fastened to the rope ladder.
“Now pull,” he said.
She pulled and pulled until the rope ladder reached her window and then she fastened that to a hook under the sill and the first thing that happened—just like lightning—was that Peter Piper ran up the ladder and leaned over her window ledge.
“Will you marry me,” he said. “I haven’t anything to give you to eat and I am as ragged as a scarecrow, but will you?”
She clapped her little hands.
“I eat very little,” she said. “And I would do without anything at all, if I could live in your funny old shabby house.”
“It is a ridiculous, tumbled-down old barn, isn’t it?” he said. “But every one of us is as nice as we can be. We are perfect Turkish Delights. It’s laughing that does it. Would you like to come down the ladder and see what a jolly, shabby old hole the place is?”
“Oh! do take me,” said Lady Patsy.