"Oh!" said Peggy. "What, I wonder, is conveyed exactly by the term `womanly'? I understood that that expression belonged to the Middle Ages." "I hope not," Mr Musgrave said. "Well, define it." "A womanly woman," Mr Musgrave began slowly, weighing his words as though he felt that the subject were deserving of his utmost care in an appropriate selection of language, "is first and foremost a gentlewoman." "H'm!" commented Peggy. She was tempted to interrupt him in order to inquire if he did not consider her a gentlewoman, but refrained. "She is," Mr Musgrave proceeded, "considerate in her actions and in her conversation. She is always sincere and thoughtful for others; and she would never do anything unbecoming to her sex, or unworthy of herself. That is what I understand by the term womanly." "She would be a bit dull, don't you think?" Peggy hazarded. "She sounds priggish to me. Do you really believe you would like her, Mr Musgrave? I think you'd be fed up in no time. She wouldn't, for instance, permit you to stand talking to her and holding her hand all the while. That would, according to your definition as I interpret it, be unseemly on her part." John Musgrave promptly released her hand and straightened himself and looked grave. Peggy laughed. "That would have been better left unsaid," she remarked demurely. "It was an indiscretion of speech. I fear it would take me a long time to learn how to be womanly, don't you?" "Don't you think that possibly you are womanly without knowing it?" he asked. "Shall I tell you what the term womanly conveys to me?" Peggy said. "If you will," he replied. "It suggests a woman of a big nature and a warm heart. She doesn't bother her head as to whether what she is doing is becoming; but her conscience troubles her when she does something which is not quite square and honest, which is perhaps a little mean. She strives to be helpful and companionable and sympathetic, and she detests censoriousness and unkind criticism, either in herself or others." "I am afraid," Mr Musgrave said, with an insight which Peggy had not credited him with possessing, "that you are rebuking me for impertinence." Peggy flushed, and raised her face quickly to his. "No," she contradicted; "no. I think you meant to be kind." There was something very bewitching in Peggy's upturned face, in the unwonted earnestness of her eyes, and the sweetly serious curve of the parted lips. John Musgrave, as he returned her steady gaze, was more powerfully influenced than he had any idea of. He believed that his interest in Peggy was of the paternal, platonic order. Many people become obsessed with the platonic ideal and travel far along the road of life without discovering that between a man and woman platonic affection is unnatural. There have been instances of platonic love, but these are few; it is a rare and an abnormal emotion.