"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Zoie in shocked surprise.
"He's sure to find out sooner or later," said Aggie sagely. "I think
that's the only sensible way to begin."
"If I'd told Alfred all MY ideas about things," smiled Zoie, "there'd
have BEEN no beginning."
"What do you mean?" asked Aggie, with a troubled look.
"Well, take our meeting," explained Zoie. "Just as we were introduced,
that horrid little Willie Peck caught his heel in a flounce of my skirt.
I turned round to slap him, but I saw Alfred looking, so I patted his
ugly little red curls instead. And what do you think? Alfred told me
to-night that it was my devotion to Willie that first made him adore
me."
"And you didn't explain to him?" asked Aggie in amazement.
"And lose him before I'd got him!" exclaimed Zoie.
"It might be better than losing him AFTER you've got him," concluded the
elder girl.
"Oh, Aggie," pouted Zoie, "I think you are horrid. You're just trying to
spoil all the fun of my engagement."
"I am not," cried Aggie, and the next moment she was sitting on the arm
of Zoie's chair.
"Goose!" she said, "how dare you be cross with me?"
"I am NOT cross," declared Zoie, and after the customary apologies from
Aggie, confidence was fully restored on both sides and Zoie continued
gaily: "Don't you worry about Alfred and me," she said as she kicked off
her tiny slippers and hopped into bed. "Just you wait until I get him.
I'll manage him all right."
"I dare say," answered Aggie; not without misgivings, as she turned off
the light.