She now called after him, and in a moment was at his side.
"Why are you going away?" she said. "You must not go till I show you my
garden."
Maggie joined them, for he deeply enlisted her sympathy, and she wished to
make it clear by her manner that the tie between him and the child had her
approval. "Yes, indeed, Mr. Alvord," she said, "you must let Johnnie show
you her garden, and especially her pansies."
"Heart's-ease is another name for the flower, I believe," he replied, with
the glimmer of a smile. "In that case Johnnie should be called Pansy. I
thank you, Mrs. Clifford, that you are willing to trust your child to a
stranger. We had a lovely ramble the other day, and she said that you told
her she might go with me."
"I'm only too glad that you find Johnnie an agreeable little neighbor,"
Maggie began. "Indeed, we all feel so neighborly that we hope you will soon
cease to think of yourself as a stranger." But here impatient Johnnie
dragged him off to see her garden, and his close and appreciative attention
to all she said and showed to him won the child's heart anew. Amy soon
joined them, and said:
"Mr. Alvord, I wish your congratulations, also. I'm eighteen to-day."
He turned, and looked at her so wistfully for a moment that her eyes fell.
"I do congratulate you," he said, in a low, deep voice. "If I had my choice
between all the world and your age, I'd rather be eighteen again. May your
brow always be as serene as it is to-night, Miss Amy.
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