“Don’t mind our leaving you awhile, will you, dear?” she said to the child. “I’ve got to tell Joan a secret that isn’t my own alone. You’ve been a dear little soul, such a comfort! I’d love to tell it to you if only you were as old as Joan.”
“I don’t mind,” said little Anne without the slightest indication that she already knew as much about it as she could understand, and that was all the facts of the case, though not their consequences.
“I think I’ll stay with Peter after I tell him about the carriage. He’s out in the backyard, working. He likes me there; he didn’t use to want me chattering, he said. I think Peter will prob’ly be a priest. He’s so good to me since I was sick that I’m ’most sure he’s got a vocation.”
Little Anne betook herself to the backyard, where she found Peter as she had expected. She helped him with the front wheels of Barbara’s carriage, lifting it up on the piazza, and then returned with him to sit in her favourite attitude, elbows on knees, hands supporting her elfin chin, watching him work. But even to Peter, absorbed though he was, her interest in skis was plainly distracted.
“Would you like a pair, Anne?” he asked. “You see I’m trying to fix up a sort of steering gear, rudder-like attachment. Do you suppose you could use skis without going on your nose?”
“Could I!” exclaimed Anne, scornfully. “Funny if I couldn’t. There isn’t much boys can do I can’t. And those things are only ’cause I’m rather small. When I’m as old as you I’ll do every single thing you do, just’s well you do ’em.”
“That’s no idle dream, either, Anne,” agreed Peter, admiringly. “I’d back you for a Marathon.”
“Well, that’s nice of you, Peter,” Anne said with a deep, indrawn breath, as gratified as if she knew what a Marathon was. “Peter, I’m cast down and ’flicted in my mind.”
“Gee!” exclaimed Peter, stopping short to look at little Anne. “That’s going some, even for you, Miss Berkley! What’s tuned you up on the Lamentations?”
“The Lamentations in Tenebræ; I guess I know that!” little Anne rebuked him. “It isn’t Holy Week in July! Peter, is it perfec’ly awful to love someone and not be going to marry that one, but another who is truly glorious?”