"Poor little Peg!" said Rob tenderly. "Poor little Peg! You were always an honest little soul, and owned up about your failings. Well, there it is, and you must fight it out for yourself. No one can help you in a case like this, and you'll come out all right in the end, so long as you keep a true heart. I suppose it's only natural that you should want your fling. Most girls do, and find a mysterious pleasure in gadding about, and dressing themselves up like dolls." He scanned her once again with amused, half-angry admiration. "You are mighty smart, Miss Mariquita--a very fine bird! It must have taken a long time to put on all those feathers. Are those what you call your feet? Have you been going in for the binding system in India, may I ask?" "What is the matter with my feet?" queried Peggy, in a tone of injury, as she stretched out two satin slippers, which seemed suddenly to become of Liliputian dimensions when contrasted with Rob's huge square-toed shoes. "They are very useful little feet, and can carry me about just as well as your great ironclads can carry you. You used to say yourself that I walked uncommonly well for a girl." "I did, and I'm glad to find you have not outgrown the accomplishment. Do you remember the red Tam o' Shanter, Peggy? I found it on its peg when I went to the vicarage after you had left, and walked off with it in my pocket. There was a hue and cry when its loss was discovered, for it had been kept as a sort of fetish, but I refused to restore it. I'll give it back to you, though, if you will promise to wear it in the country when I can see you!" "I will, with pleasure, every single day when it's not too hot. Dear old Tam! It will remind me of our old times together, when we were so happy, and thought ourselves so miserable, because lessons were hard, or our plans went wrong, or we couldn't agree. But you and I never quarrelled, Rob, we were always friends, and--" "Partners!" said Rob softly; and Peggy stared fixedly across the room, and once again the floor described that curious upward tilt, and a kaleidoscope whirl of colour flew past. CHAPTER EIGHT. Ten minutes later Peggy emerged from behind the cluster of palm-trees, and laid her hand on Rob's arm to accompany him to the refreshment-room below.