He spoke rapidly, but Rosalind only shrugged her shoulders, and whispered something in Max’s ear at which he smiled and nodded his head, evidently taking her part against her brother, to Peggy’s intense indignation.
No words were exchanged between the partners on the subject of the calendar until they were once more at home; when Robert took advantage of the first quiet opportunity and came up to Peggy with a face of set determination.
“Mariquita!” he said, “I am—not—going—to give in! If you stick to me, I think we can still manage to get the calendar off in time. There are twenty more quotations to be found. I’ll sit up to-night and fix them off, and go on writing as long as I can keep awake, but I can’t take a dozen books up to town with me, so I must leave it to you to finish up. I’ll mark the passages I choose, write the full address on a piece of paper, and leave everything ready for you to make up the parcel. All you will have to do will be to write the remaining cards, and to see that it is sent off on Friday. Five o’clock will be time enough, but if you can get it off in the morning, so much the better. You think you can manage as much as that?”
“Oh, yes! I’d do anything rather than give up now. It would be too grudging. I am not afraid of a little more work.”
“You have done more than your share already. I am mad about it, but it can’t be helped. I couldn’t refuse to go with the mater, and I wouldn’t if I could. She is really not at all strong, and does not like the life down here. It will do her good to have a few days’ change.”
Peggy looked at him steadily. She did not speak, but her eyes grew soft and shining, and there was something at once so sweet, so kindly, and so gentle in her expression that Rob exclaimed in surprise—
“I say, Peggy, you—you do look pretty! I never saw you look like that before—what have you been doing to yourself?”
“Doing!” Peggy straightened herself at that, in offended dignity. “Doing, indeed! What do you mean? Don’t you think I am pretty as a rule?”
“Never thought about it,” returned Robert carelessly. “You are Peggy—that’s enough for me. A nice state I should be in to-day if it were not for you! You are the jolliest little brick I ever met, and if I get this prize it will be far more your doing than my own.”