the one great big wondherful power in the wurrld. It's me love for me
father has kept faith and hope alive in me heart. I was happy with him.
I never wanted to lave him. Now I see there is another happiness, too
an' it's beyond me. I'm no one's equal. I'm just a little Irish
nothin'--"

"Don't say that," Jerry interrupted. "There's an obstinate bad
something in me that holds me back every time I want to go forward.
Sometimes the good little somethin' tries so hard to win, but the bad
bates it. It just bates it, it does."

"What you call the bad is the cry of youth that resents being curbed:
and the GOOD is the WOMAN in you struggling for an outlet," explained
Jerry.

"Will you help me to give it an outlet, Mr. Jerry?"

"In any way in my power, Peg."

As they stood looking at each other the momentary something was
trembling on both their lips and beating in both of their hearts. The
something--old as time, yet new as birth--that great transmuter of
affection into love, of hope into faith. It had come to them--yet
neither dared speak.

Peg read his silence wrongly. She blushed to the roots of her hair and
her heart beat fast with shame. She laughed a deliberately misleading
laugh and, looking up roguishly at him, said, her eyes dancing with
apparent mischief, though the tear lurked behind the lid:

"Thank ye for promisin' to help me, Misther Jerry. But would ye mind
very much if the BAD little somethin' had one more SPURT before I
killed it altogether? Would ye?"

"Why, how do you mean?"

"Take me to that dance tonight--even without me aunt's permission, will
ye? I'll never forget ye for it if ye will. An' it'll be the last wrong
thing I'll ever do. I'm just burnin' all over at the thought of it. My
heart's burstin' for it." She suddenly hummed a waltz refrain and
whirled around the room, the incarnation of childish abandonment.

Mrs. Chichester came slowly down the stairs, gazing in horror at the
little bouncing figure. As Peg whirled past the newel post she caught
sight of her aunt. She stopped dead.

"What does this mean?" asked Mrs. Chichester angrily.

Peg crept away and sank down into a chair:

Jerry came to the rescue. He shook hands with Mrs. Chichester and said:

"I want you to do something that will make the child very happy. Will
you allow her to go to a dance at the Assembly Rooms tonight?"

"Certainly not," replied Mrs. Chichester severely. "I am surprised at
you for asking such a thing."