And Dick murmured gruffly—
“I want no one but you,” and held her tightly in his arms, while Bridgie sniffed, and whimpered, like one of her own small children.
“But if P–ixie—if Pixie is unhappy—if any wretched man breaks Pixie’s heart—”
“He couldn’t!” Dick Victor said firmly. “No man could. That’s beyond them. Heart’s like Pixie’s don’t break, Honey! I don’t say they, may not ache at times, but breaking is a different matter. Your bantling is grown-up: you can keep her no longer beneath your wing. She must go out into the world, and work and suffer like the rest, but she’ll win through. Pixie the woman will be a finer creature than Pixie the child!”
But Bridgie hid her face, and the tears rushed into her eyes, for hers was the mother’s heart which longed ever to succour and protect, and Pixie was the child whom a dying father had committed to her care. It was hard to let Pixie go.
Chapter Four.
The Invitation.
The immediate consequence of the Pixie pronouncement was a correspondence between her two elder sisters, wherein Bridgie ate humble-pie, and Esmeralda rode the high horse after the manner born.