No one wants me up there. Aggie has got that cousin of hers
to amuse her, and I should feel only in the way, if I went."
Mr. Wilks was fairly out of temper at the way things were going. He was
angry with James; angry with the squire, who evidently viewed with
satisfaction the good understanding between his granddaughter and
nephew; angry, for the first time in his life, with Aggie herself.
"You are growing a downright little flirt, Miss Aggie," he said one
day, when the girl came in from the garden, where she had been laughing
and chatting with her cousin.
He had intended to speak playfully, but there was an earnestness in his
tone which the girl, at once, detected.
"Are you really in earnest, grampa?" she asked, for she still retained
the childish name for her grandfather--so distinguishing him from the
squire, whom she always called grandpapa.
"No; I don't know that I am in earnest, Aggie," he said, trying to
speak lightly; "and yet, perhaps, to some extent I am."
"I am sure you are," the girl said. "Oh, grampa! You are not really
cross with me, are you?" and the tears at once sprang into her eyes. "I
have not been doing anything wrong, have I?"
"No, my dear, not in the least wrong," her grandfather said hastily.
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