"So am I, sir," she said archly. "I am quite as old as you are, I think."
"This is the first quarrel," Nan declared, "and who knows how it will all end? You are to come and stay as long as you please, and then after that, you are to stay as long as I please."
"I declare, Nan, you talk like an old woman!" exclaimed Miss Fanny; whereupon Nan laughed and said she had to be serious sometimes.
And so it was arranged that Margaret was to stay with Nan for an indefinite period. "I hope you will come to see me occasionally, Mr. Tomlin, and you too, Aunt Fanny," she said with mock formality. "We shall have days for receiving company, just as the fine ladies do in the cities; and you'll have to send in your cards."
The two young women refused to go in the carriage.
"It is so small and stuffy," said Margaret to Neighbour Tomlin, "and to-day I want to be in the fresh air. If you please, sir, don't look at me like that, or I can never go." She went close to him. "Oh, is it all true? Is it really and truly true, or is it a dream?"
"It is true," he said, kissing her. "It is a dream, but it is my dream come true."
"I didn't think," she said, as she went along with Nan, "that the world was as beautiful as it seems to be to-day."
"Mr. Sanders says," replied Nan, "that it is the most comfortable world he has ever found; but somehow—well, you know we can't all be happy the same way at the same time."
"Your day is still to come," said Margaret, "and when it does, I want to be there."