"Oh, how do you know all that, Miss Day? You know everything! But I shan't enjoy the concert a bit. I shall not. Do you know why? Because you will not be there."
"Oh, nonsense, Kitty! Nonsense! Nonsense!"
"I shall be thinking of you all the time, and wishing--oh wishing! Miss Day, do you believe it is true that if we keep on wishing with all our strength--not a selfish pig of a wish, you know, but something nice for another person--the wish ever, _ever_ comes true?"
"Every wish is as a prayer with God," quoted Deleah, unquestioning in her child's heart the literal truth of the words.
"Then, Miss Day, this is not Kitty Miller walking with you any longer, but one big solid Wish--Oh, there he is again, Miss Day! There is young Mr. Forcus--look!"
"I see him. I am not going to stop. Let us walk on quicker, Kitty."
"Isn't it strange that he should always be riding here, just when we come out of school, Miss Day?"
"Never mind. No; you are not to look round, Kitty."
"How _beautifully_ he pulls off his hat! He had a most dreadfully disappointed look when you would not stop, Miss Day. I think you are very cruel."
"Never mind. No, Kitty! Don't, dear. No lady looks back when a gentleman passes her."
(A new entry appeared in "The Deleah Book" that night: "No lady looks round when a gentleman passes her. D. D.")
"Miss Day!"--with a soft, irrepressible giggle--"He has turned his horse and is riding after us."
But when the mare was pulled up beside her, her hoofs clattering on the cobble-stones of the street, Miss Day, in spite of herself, must stop.
"How do, Deleah?" Kitty Miller had again the privilege of seeing how beautifully the hat came off, exposing for quite an appreciable time the young man's fair, smooth head. "Whoa, Nance!" to the satin-skinned, black mare, who objected to being pulled into the gutter running by the side of the pavement. "I say--there was something I particularly wanted to say to you, Deleah. Whoa! Steady, old girl! I say--how's Bessie?"
"Bessie is very well, thank you, Mr. Forcus."
"'Mr. Forcus?' Come, I say, Deleah! you aren't going to put me at arm's length, that fashion! I was going to ask you--How is Bessie?"
"I was wondering if I might look in sometimes on Mrs. Day--"