r could. You want me so much that even if Denis did want
me a great deal, I should come to you, because you want me more, and
because all his life he's had the things he wanted, and now it's your
turn. 'Tisn't _fair_. Why shouldn't you have things too--you and Thomas?
Thomas and you and I can be happy together with no money and nothing else
much; we can make our own good time as we go along, if we have each
other. Oh, Peter, let's!"

She bent down to him, reaching out her hands, and Thomas smiled on her
lap. So for a moment the three stayed, and the woods were hushed round
them, waiting. Then in the green roof above a riot of shrill, sweet
triumph broke the hush, and Peter leaped to his feet and laughed.

"Oh, Lucy, let's. Why not? I told Thomas the day before yesterday that we
were going to have a good time now. Well, then, let's have it. Who's to
prevent it? It's our turn; it's our turn. We'll begin from now and take
things and keep them.... Oh, d'you mean it, Lucy? D'you mean you'll come
and play with us, for ever and ever?"

"'Course I will," she said, simply, like a child.

He fell on his knees beside her and leant on his hands and peered into
Thomas's face.

"Do you hear, Thomas? She's coming; she's coming to us, for always. You
wanted her, didn't you? You wanted her nearly as much as I did, only you
didn't know it so well.... Oh, Lucy, oh, Lucy, oh, Lucy ... I've wanted
you so ..."

"I've wanted you too," she said. "I haven't talked about that part of it,
'cause it's so obvious, and I knew you knew. All the time, even when I
thought I cared for Denis, I was only half a person without you. Of
course, I always knew that, without thinking much about it, from the time
we were babies. Only I didn't know it meant this; I thought it was more
like being brother and sister, and that we could both be happy just
seeing each other sometimes. It's only rather lately that I've known it
had to be everything. There's nothing at all to say about the way we
care, Peter, because it's such an old stale thing; it's always been, and
I s'pose it always will be. 'Tisn't a new, surprising, sudden thing, like
my falling in love with Denis. It's so deep, it's got root right down at
the bottom, before we can either of us remember. It's like this ivy
that's all over the ground, and out of which all the little flowers
and things grow. And when it's like that...."

"Yes," said Peter, "when it's like that, there's only one way to take.