"I think," he began at last, "I think that when I'm a big man I'll live in a cottage all alone with Peggy, and not no one else."
Peggy turned to him with sparkling eyes.
"A white cottage, Baldwin dear; do say a white cottage," she entreated.
"I don't mind—a white cottage, but quite a tiny one," he replied.
"Hum!" said Thor, "that's very good-natured, I must say. There'll be no room for visitors, do you hear, Terry?"
"Oh yes; p'raps there will sometimes," said Peggy.
"You'll let your poor old Terry come, won't you, Peg-top?" said Terence, coaxingly.
"Dear Terry," said Peggy.
"Haven't you been very dull all day alone, by the bye?" Terence went on.
"Not very," Peggy replied. "Fanny took me a nice walk, and this morning——" But she stopped short before telling more. She was afraid that Thorold would laugh at her if she said how much she liked the children at the back, and then she had another reason. She wanted to "surprise" her brothers with a present of pipes for soap-bubbles, and very likely if she began talking about the back street at all it would make them think of Mrs. Whelan's, and then they might think of the pipes for themselves, which Peggy did not wish at all. She felt quite big and managing since she had paid a visit to the Smileys, and had a plan for going to buy the pipes "all by my own self."