He went on again:
"Your aunt will do everything in her power to make you feel at home.
Won't you, Mrs. Chichester?"
"Everything!" said Mrs. Chichester, as if she were walking over her
own grave.
Peg looked at her aunt ruefully: her expression was most forbidding:
at Ethel's expressive back; lastly at Alaric fitting a cigarette
into a gold mounted holder. Her whole nature cried out against them.
She made one last appeal to Mr. Hawkes:
"DO send me back to me father!"
"Nonsense, my dear Miss O'Connell. You would not disappoint your
father in that way, would you? Wait for a month. I'll call on the
first and I expect to hear only the most charming things about you.
Now, good-bye," and he took her hand.
She looked wistfully up at him:
"Good-bye, sir. And thank ye very much for bein' so kind to me."
Hawkes bowed to Mrs. Chichester and Ethel and went to the door.
"Have a cab?" asked Alaric.
"No, thank you," replied the lawyer. "I have no luggage. Like the
walk. Good-day," and Peg's only friend in England passed out and
left her to face this terrible English family alone.
"Your name is Margaret," said Mrs. Chichester, as the door closed on
Mr. Hawkes.
"No, ma'am--" Peg began, but immediately corrected herself; "no,
aunt--I beg your pardon--no aunt--my name is Peg," cried she
earnestly.
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