a ballad, and Alice will do anything
I ask her. You see that we will make a hero of you, and we will sing
this song in your praise when you are far away," said Emily.
"Then I am not be forgotten," said Brandon, speaking to Emily, but
looking very hard at Elsie. "I do not wish to be forgotten by any one
here; but I do not care for being remembered as a hero, which I do not
deserve to be--but as a--a friend."
"Our friends here have been so few that we are not likely to forget any
of them, and with Emily beside us we stand a good chance of hearing
your name frequently," said Elsie.
"And you made a song about me--actually about me," said Brandon,
looking as if he wished the five young Phillipses out of the way.
"Oh! Alice can make a song about anything," said Constance; "she made
one about my little kitten."
"And such a nice one about my humming-top--how it goes whiz--whiz,"
said Hubert.
"And Peggy told Alice and Miss Melville about the fire, and all about
you long ago--long before she saw any of us," said Emily.
"She made up a pretty story to amuse them just as Alice does for us
when they were sad and dull--only Peggy's story was all true, and
Alice's are mostly not."
Brandon's quick eye could observe the faintest additional flush pass
over Elsie's already crimson cheek, and guessed that Peggy's
revelations had been a little too true and minute. What motive had she
to conceal anything about him when she was relating her own experiences
to divert the minds of the two poor girls in their troubles and
perplexities? Was this the solution of his refusal in the railway
carriage? If it was, he should try again. He had been a fool, an idiot,
to give up so readily at the first nay-say. Now, it was too late; his
passage was taken out for himself and Edgar, and he was to sail on the
morrow; but if things looked decently well at Barragong on his return
he must write, though he was no great scribe.
"Shall I not call Jane?" said Elsie, who felt embarrassed by his looks
and manner, and dreaded his saying anything particular before a group
of the sharpest children in the world. "She is extremely busy, but if
you have come to bid her goodbye, she must see you for that."
"You used to talk of going to Australia--to Melbourne, I mean--with
your sister and Peggy, when she returns."
"We hope to be able to do so," said Elsie.
"Then I will see you again--I must see you again. Don't call your
sister yet--don't."
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