That's lovers all over.
And they hadn't finished yet, if you'll believe me. Dr. Denbigh went on talking as they stood up, just as if I wasn't living. “You won't promise me?” he asked her.
And she said: “Oh, Jack, how can I? I don't know what to do—but I'm engaged to him—that's a solemn thing.”
“Solemn nonsense,” said the doctor. “You don't love him—you never did—you never could. Be a woman, dearest, and end this wretched mess.”
“I never would have thought I loved him if I hadn't believed I'd lost you,” Peggy ruminated to herself. “But I must think—” As if she hadn't thunk for an hour!
“How long must you think?” the doctor fired at her.
“Don't be cross at me,” said she, like a baby, and that big capable man picked up her hand and kissed it—shame on him!
“No, no, dear,” he said, as meek as pie. “I'll wait—only you MUST decide the right way, and remember that I'm waiting, and that it's hard.”
Then he put her into the cart clingingly—I'd have chucked her—and I leaned over toward him the last thing and threw my head lovingly on one side and rolled my eyes up and murmured at him, “Good-bye, Jack,” and started Hotspur before he could hit me.
Now, thank the stars, there's just one or two little items more that I've got to write. One is what I heard mother tell father when they were on the front piazza alone, and I was teaching the puppy to beg, right in sight of them on the grass. They think I'm an earless freak, maybe. She told him that dear Peggy was growing into such a strong, splendid woman; that she'd been talking to her, and she thought the child would be able to give up her weak, vacillating lover with hardly a pang, because she realized that he was unworthy of her; that Peg had said she couldn't marry a man she didn't admire—and wasn't that noble of her? Noble, your grandmother—to give up a perfect lady like Harry Goward, when she's got a real man up her sleeve! I'd have made them sit up and take notice if I hadn't promised not to tell. Which reminds me that I ought to explain how I got Dr. Denbigh to let me write this for Lorraine. I put it to him strongly, you see, about the cookies, and at first he said.