"But grown girls have them," responded Marion, "I think it must be captivating. I wish I was grown up."
"You're much too ugly, Marion, to have a lover," responded Mary Mills. "Oh, for goodness' sake, don't get so red and angry! She's going to strike me! Save me, girls!"
"Hush!" exclaimed Katie, "hush! come this way. Look through the lattice. Look through the wire fence just here. Can you see? There's Fluff, and there's her lover. He's rather old, isn't he? But hasn't he l'air distingué? Isn't Fluff pretty when she blushes? The lover is rather tall. Oh, do look, Mary, can you see—can you see?"
"Yes, he has fair hair," responded Mary. "It curls. I'm sorry it is fair and curly, for Fluff's is the same. He should be dark, like a Spaniard. Oh, girls, girls, he has got such lovely blue eyes, and such white teeth! He smiled just now, and I saw them."
"Let me peep," said Marion. "I haven't got one peep yet."
But here the voices became a little loud, and the lovers, if they were lovers, passed out of sight behind the yew hedge.
"That's it," said Fluff when she had finished her story; "it's all explained now. I hope you're obliged to me."
"No brother could love you better, nor appreciate you more than I do, Fluff."
"Thank you; I'll tell you how much I care for those words when you let me know what you are going to do."
Arnold put his hand to his forehead; his face grew grave, he looked with an earnest, half-puzzled glance at the childish creature by his side.