"Child, child, you'll faint, or something awful will happen!"
"No, I won't. I'm not a bit fainty. I want to tell you that I love you"—here came a kiss—"and you love me"—another kiss.
"To be sure, pushkeen."
"Then that's all right. Put me back on the sofa, dear Colonel, and then give me Uncle Pat's letter, and then go away, please; only before you go, will you promise me one thing?"
"What is that, acushla machree?"
"I want you to come to me every day as you have come to-day until I am well enough to go to you, for we have just an awful lot to do and talk over before Uncle Pat comes back. Will you promise me, dear Colonel?"
"Yes, child. God help me, I think I'd promise you anything."
"Then that's all right and I am happy. I think I am about the happiest little girl in the world. I don't seem to have a care anywhere at all—only, please, my letter!"
"Yes, baby, only don't for goodness' sake, go and cry over it."
"You don't like cry-babies either," said Maureen.