at least, for you have the gift of happiness. I feel things too, but I
can't express my feelings. I want to act, and I hang back trembling
until some one else steps forward. I try to speak, and my lips won't
move. You don't know how dreadful it is to feel as if two iron bands
were placed round your mouth and would not _let_ you speak!"

Peggy laughed in conscience-stricken fashion.

"I--don't!" she cried comically, and her eyebrows went up in a peak. "I
have a pretty considerable fluency of language, as an American cousin
would say, and the worst of it is, I speak first and think afterwards!
Your iron bands remind me of the man in the dear old fairy-tale who was
under the spell of a wicked magician, and had iron straps bound round
his heart. There was only one way in which they could be broken, and no
one knew what it was, but one day a peasant woman took pity on his
sufferings and tried to nurse him, and snap! one of the bands broke off
and fell to the ground. Another time a little child brought him some
food, and snap again! another disappeared. Last of all the beautiful
princess chose him for her husband before all her rich suitors, and
dropped two things upon his cheek--a kiss and a tear, and at that all
the other bands broke at once, and he was free. Perhaps that story
really meant that the man was shy and reserved, as you are, Eunice, and
could never show his real self until he found friends to love and
understand. I am not going to shed tears over you, my dear, but may I
kiss you, please? You only shook hands when we met at the station."

Eunice rose up swiftly and knelt down at Peggy's feet. Her face was
lifted to receive the offered kiss, and the flush upon her cheeks, the
smile on her lips revealed such unexpected possibilities of beauty as
filled the other with admiration. The features, were daintily
irregular, the skin fine and delicate as a child's, the hair rolled back
in a soft, smoke-like ripple. The two girls looked at one another long
and steadily, until at last Eunice said falteringly:

"What do you see in _my_ eyes, Peggy?" and Peggy answered promptly:

"I see a friend! Please let me go on seeing her. While I'm here,
Eunice, give the carpet a rest and look at me instead. You can't deny
that I'm better worth seeing."

"Oh, you are, especially when you pull faces!" responded Eunice
unexpectedly. "Peggy, some day, when there is nothing else to do and
you are not tired, will you i