"Mr. Hawkes! Oho! Indade!" She turned back to Jerry: "Did he know
about the five thousand? When I'm twenty-one?"
"He drew the will at Mr. Kingsnorth's dictation," replied Jerry.
"Was that why ye wanted me to be engaged to ye until I was twenty-
one?" she asked the unhappy lawyer.
Hawkes tried to laugh it off.
"Come, come, Miss O'Connell," he said, "what nonsense!"
"Did YOU propose to Miss Margaret? "queried Jerry.
"Well--" hesitated the embarrassed lawyer--"in a measure--yes."
"That's what it was," cried Peg, with a laugh. "It was very
measured. No wondher the men were crazy to kape me here and to marry
me."
She caught sight of Alaric and smiled at him. He creased his face
into a sickly imitation of a smile and murmured:
"Well, of course, I mean to say!" with which clear and well-defined
expression of opinion, he stopped.
"I could have forgiven you, Alaric," said Peg, "but Mr. Hawkes, I'm
ashamed of ye."
"It was surely a little irregular, Hawkes," suggested Jerry.
"I hardly agree with you, Sir Gerald. There can be nothing irregular
in a simple statement of affection."
"Affection is it?" cried Peg.
"Certainly. We are both alone in the world. Miss O'Connell seemed to
be unhappy: the late Mr.
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