But the little girl answered quite frankly:—
"I was getting frightened."
And she slipped her arm round Philip's neck.
If Philip had been to a boys' school he would have received this familiarity with open alarm or resentment. Being what he was, nothing but a very gallant little gentleman, he responded by putting his own arm in a protective fashion round his companion's slim shoulders.
"Now we are all right," he said comfortably.
"Tell me your news," commanded Peggy.
Philip related the whole amazing story. Peggy listened breathlessly, her eyes and lips forming three round O's. When the recital was finished, she remarked:—
"She must have been the lady Mother meant when she said that was the question only one woman could give the answer to only she never would."
"Yes," said Philip, catching the general sense of this unusual passage of syntax. "It was the same name—a funny name—Vivien."
"How do you know?" asked Peggy curiously.