Page:Jean Webster--Much ado about Peter.djvu/297

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A PARABLE FOR HUSBANDS
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arms folded, and I'd say: 'Ye would, would ye? In that case I 'll stay right here an' niver go away.' An' then she'd be so mad she'd put her head down on the back o' the chair an' cry, deep like, the way she always did when she could n't have what she wanted, an' I'd wait with a frown on me brow, an' when she got through she'd be all over it, an' would ask me pardon sorrowful like; an' I'd wait a while an' let it soak in, an' then I'd forgive her."

Mr. Harry stared at Peter, too amazed to speak.

"Yes, sir," Peter resumed, "I 've watched Miss Ethel grow up, and I knows her like her own mother, as ye might say. I 've drove her to and from the town for thirteen years, and I 've rode after her many miles on horseback, an' when she felt like it she would talk to me as chatty as if I were n't a groom. She was always that way with the servants; she took an interest in our troubles, an' we all