However, Peggy laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
“Of course I am in love. I am in love with the whole world and I never have been half so much so before in my life. Who wouldn’t be in such a place on such a day and in such society?”
Peggy made a slight grimace and bowed to her assembled friends, but by accident her gaze rested last on Ralph Marshall’s eyes and she flushed a little.
“Who of you is going a portion of the way down the trail with Ralph and me before lunch?” she asked. “Mother says she is willing if we don’t go far and are depressingly careful. I have promised not to put one foot before the other without taking thought.”
“Oh, your mother will trust you to me. I have asked her consent,” Ralph protested.
Gerry and Sally both giggled. Ralph’s speech had been made in good faith and without the least idea of a double meaning, but they were apt to be silly and sentimental on subjects they had better not have been considering while they were Camp Fire girls.
Fortunately, Peggy did not even see the point in their sudden amusement. She was waiting to have some one except Ralph Marshall reply to her question.
“I do wish you would not go, Peggy. The rest of us are satisfied with this view of the canyon for today, at least. We did not plan to go further down,” Bettina Graham protested, looking anxious. “I would go with you if I dared, but you know how I hate looking down great distances.”
Peggy laughed. “Oh, you are not to come, ‘Tall Princess.’ We would not have you along for a great deal. Remember what a time we had with you on a much less difficult trail. But I thought some one of the others—” She turned toward Sally and Alice Ashton and their companions, Terry Benton and Howard Brent.
Terry shook his head, but for some unknown reason appeared a little uncomfortable.