"What is it, now?" she asked impatiently. She wanted to go back to her room and make her final preparations.
Alaric looked at her with what he meant to be adoration in his eyes.
"Do you know, I've grown really awfully fond of you?" His voice quivered and broke. He had reached one of the crises of his life.
Peg looked at him and a smile broadened across her face.
"No, I didn't know it. When did ye find it out?"
"Just now—down in that room—when the thought flashed through me that perhaps you really meant to leave us. It went all through me. 'Pon my honour, it did. The idea positively hurt me. Really HURT me."
"Did it, now?" laughed Peg. "Sure, an' I'm glad of it."
"Glad! GLAD?" he asked in astonishment.
"I am. I didn't think anythin' could hurt ye unless it disturbed yer comfort. An' I don't see how my goin' will do that."
"Oh, but it will," persisted Alaric. "Really, it will."