"And since that day I've loved you, Peter. Yes, I loved you in that very hour when you bit Aleck Curry's ear!"
He filled his hands with the loosened masses of her hair, crushing the soft coils between his fingers.
"Kiss me."
"Sh-h!" She put a finger to his lips. "It is Aunt Josette! I hear her coming! I must run up the back way and fix my hair!"
"It is unthoughtful of Aunt Josette——"
"But she is coming!"
"Kiss me!"
She pressed her warm lips to his, and he let her go. Scarcely had she escaped when Josette's light footsteps sounded in the dining-room, and a moment later she appeared in the kitchen. Peter was stirring pancake batter.
"Mona gave me this job," he tried to explain. "She'll be back in a minute."
Josette smiled at him sweetly, and then quite innocently picked up several hairpins from the floor. "How careless of me to lose these!" she exclaimed, but there was a roguish light in her dark eyes which did not quite escape Peter as she tucked the pins in her own thick tresses.