Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/116

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PEGGY-IN-THE-RAIN



hansom! And why not? What was youth for if not for love and its pleasures? What was wealth for if not to be obeyed? He would find her, find her now, at once, his Peggy-in-the-Rain! What were all her silly objections weighed against his want of her, her want of him? For she did care for him, she must care for him. And if she cared——

A vision of her face came to him, her shadowy eyes raised as they had been raised yesterday, half-frightened, half angry. His heart stirred and he smiled tenderly.

"Ah, but I'll be good to you, Peggy-in-the-Rain," he murmured. "So good to you, dear!"

And then the realization that he neither knew who she was nor where to find her obtruded and he felt sick with a sense of powerlessness. What a fool he had been with his silly heroics yesterday! Why, he might not find her for days, for weeks! He might never find her! Might never see her again! The thought was intolerable, producing a veritable panic of despair until he cast it off with a grim tightening of his lips and a grimmer resolution to find her at any cost. After all. New York was but a small place. Why, he might run

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