"Dear lad!" said Hildegarde, taking his black paw and pressing it affectionately. "I know you are as good as you are handsome. Will you be my friend, too? Hugh is going to be my friend."
"He will!" cried Hugh eagerly. "We always like the same people, and almost always the same things. He won't eat apples, and I don't chase cats; but those are nearly the only things we don't like together."
At a turn in the road, Hildegarde saw in the distance a black figure walking toward them.
"There is my mother dear!" she exclaimed. "She said she would come and meet me. Will you come and see her, Hugh?—she is very nice!" she added, seeing that the boy hung back. But Hugh studied his boots again with rapt attention, and apparently read in them a summons back to The Poplars.
"I think I have to go back!" he said. "I love you, and you are my Purple Maid. May I come to see you once?"
"You may come fifty times, dear little lad!" cried Hildegarde warmly. "Come as often as you like."
But Hugh Allen shook his head sagely. "Maybe once will be enough," he said. "Come, Merlin! Good-by, Purple Maid!" And he and Merlin disappeared in a cloud of legs and dust.