Miss Falconer puckered her small brow. Evidently she declined to go all the way with Uncle Joseph in his views.
"I don't understand it all," she said frankly, "but some of it sounds pretty silly. Is your Uncle Joseph a nice man? Do you like him?"
"Yes," said Philip stoutly. "He is very kind to me."
"He sounds a funny man," mused Peggy. "I shall talk to Mother about him. I must go now. It is getting dark."
She slipped off the gate, and Philip perceived, for the first time, that for all her youthfulness she was half a head taller than himself.
"Where do you live?" enquired Philip, forgetting his previous intentions.
"Over there, where the lamp-posts are. Goodnight, Phil!"
The children shook hands gravely. Both desired most ardently to ask the same question; but Philip was restrained by his principles (now returning hurriedly to duty), and Miss Peggy by maidenly reserve. But each secretly made the same resolution at the same moment.
II