“Well, is it bought?”
“No, I never buy Christmas presents before Thanksgiving.”
“Then, DEAR Mr. Aladdin, would you buy me something different, something that I want to give away, and buy it a little sooner than Christmas?”
“That depends. I don't relish having my Christmas presents given away. I like to have them kept forever in little girls' bureau drawers, all wrapped in pink tissue paper; but explain the matter and perhaps I'll change my mind. What is it you want?”
“I need a wedding ring dreadfully,” said Rebecca, “but it's a sacred secret.”
Adam Ladd's eyes flashed with surprise and he smiled to himself with pleasure. Had he on his list of acquaintances, he asked himself, a person of any age or sex so altogether irresistible and unique as this child? Then he turned to face her with the merry teasing look that made him so delightful to young people.
“I thought it was perfectly understood between us,” he said, “that if you could ever contrive to grow up and I were willing to wait, that I was to ride up to the brick house on my snow white”—
“Coal black,” corrected Rebecca, with a sparkling eye and a warning finger.
“Coal black charger; put a golden circlet on your lily white finger, draw you up behind me on my pillion”—
“And Emma Jane, too,” Rebecca interrupted.