“No, you’ve hed ’nough,” said Matt. “It’s a shame your folks don’t look arter you better.”
“Look after me! They’re all up at the ball, the heartless creatures; but I saw the weddings, both of them, in spite of them all, and I think it’s high time Peter came back from the sugaring to _our_ wedding, and I’ve come to tell him so. This is the spot he used to sugar at. Are you sure you haven’t seen him? You are his partner; confess, now,” she wound up, cajolingly, turning her lovely face towards his troubled gaze.
“Can’t you see I’m only a boy?” he replied.
“Nonsense. You’re not a boy. Boys always call after me and pull my shawl. I know all the boys.”
Matt felt the moisture gathering afresh under his eyelids.
“What’s your name, then?” she went on, sweetly.
“Ah, mad!” she cried, in ecstasy. “We are cousins--I knew it! That’s what they call me.”
Her wild eyes shone in the firelight. The boy shuddered.
“Ah, yes, Mad Matt! Cousins! Mad Peggy--Mad Matt!”
“Yes, yes, you are!” she cried, passionately. “I can see it in your face. And yet you won’t give me a cup of water.”
“You’ve drunk ’nough,” said the boy, soothingly.
“Oh, what lovely little devils,” she exclaimed, catching sight of the wall decorations. “Do _you_ see devils, too? Didn’t I say we were cousins? Why, there’s one of the bridegrooms--ha! ha! ha! I guess he didn’t show the cloven hoof this morning.”
“Which is the bridegroom?” asked Matt, piqued into curiosity.
“There--there he is! There is the boy!” She pointed to the best portrait of Bully Preep. “_He_ always called after me, the little devil.”
Matt’s heart beat excitedly, his face crimsoned. But his strange visitor’s next words threw him back into uneasy chaos.
“Oh, but everybody is saying how scandalous it is! with his wife only six months in her grave. Look how long Peter and I have waited. Most of the girls in the village get engaged half a dozen times; they don’t know what love is, they don’t know anything, they’ve got no education. But I’ve only been engaged once, and I’m so thirsty. And you’ve got her too, the little angel! Everybody is saying how hard it is for her! And yet they all go to the ball. May they dance till they drop, the hypocrites!”
“What are you sayin’?” faltered Matt. “Hard for Ruth Hailey? Why, she’s only a little girl.”