She
was fully dressed and carried a small travelling bag.
Peg looked at her in amazement.
"Ethel!" she said in a hoarse whisper.
"You!" cried Ethel, under her breath and glaring at Peg furiously.
"Please don't tell anyone ye've seen me!" begged Peg.
"Go down into the room!" Ethel ordered.
Peg went down the stairs into the dark room, lit only by the stream
of moonlight coming in through the windows at the back. Ethel
followed her:
"What are you doing here?"
"I've been to the dance. Oh, ye won't tell me aunt, will ye? She'd
send me away an' I don't want to go now, indade I don't."
"To the dance?" repeated Ethel, incredulously. Try as she would she
could not rid herself of the feeling that Peg was there to watch
her.
"To the DANCE?" she asked again.
"Yes. Mr. Jerry took me."
"JERRY took you?"
"Yer mother wouldn't let me go. So Jerry came back for me when ye
were all in bed and he took me himself. And I enjoyed it so much.
An' I don't want yer mother to know about it. Ye won't tell her,
will ye?"
"I shall most certainly see that my mother knows of it."
"Ye will?" cried poor, broken-hearted Peg.
"I shall. You had no right to go."
"Why are ye so hard on me, Ethel?"
"Because I detest you.
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