O Peter, how perfectly lovely!'

[Illustration: Building the house for Maimie]

But as they drew near the Serpentine, she shivered a little, and said,
'Of course I shall go and see mother often, quite often. It is not as
if I was saying good-bye for ever to mother, it is not in the least
like that.'

'Oh no,' answered Peter, but in his heart he knew it was very like
that, and he would have told her so had he not been in a quaking fear
of losing her. He was so fond of her, he felt he could not live
without her. 'She will forget her mother in time, and be happy with
me,' he kept saying to himself, and he hurried her on, giving her
thimbles by the way.

But even when she had seen the boat and exclaimed ecstatically over its
loveliness, she still talked tremblingly about her mother. 'You know
quite well, Peter, don't you,' she said, 'that I wouldn't come unless I
knew for certain I could go back to mother whenever I want to? Peter,
say it.'

He said it, but he could no longer look her in the face.

'If you are sure your mother will always want you,' he added rather
sourly.

'The idea of mother's not always wanting me!' Maimie cried, and her
face glistened.

'If she doesn't bar you out,' said Peter huskily.

'The door,' replied Maimie, 'will always, always be open, and mother
will always be waiting at it for me.'

'Then,' said Peter, not without grimness, 'step in, if you feel so sure
of her,' and he helped Maimie into the Thrush's Nest.

'But why don't you look at me?' she asked, taking him by the arm.

Peter tried hard not to look, he tried to push off, then he gave a
great gulp and jumped ashore and sat down miserably in the snow.

She went to him. 'What is it, dear, dear Peter?' she said, wondering.

'O Maimie,' he cried, 'it isn't fair to take you with me if you think
you can go back! Your mother'--he gulped again--'you don't know them
as well as I do.'

And then he told her the woeful story of how he had been barred out,
and she gasped all the time. 'But my mother,' she said, '_my_
mother----'

'Yes, she would,' said Peter, 'they are all the same. I dare say she
is looking for another one already.'

Maimie said aghast, 'I can't believe it. You see, when you went away
your mother had none, but my mother has Tony, and surely they are
satisfied when they have one.'

Peter replied bitterly, 'You should see the letters Solomon gets from
ladies who have six.'

Just then they heard a grat