The crimson flamed over Nancy 's face again . She pulled her hand away . `` That 's cruel of you , Peter . '' Peter suddenly laughed . There was a note of boyishness in the laughter . `` So it is , '' he said , `` but I had to get rid of the accumulated malice and spite of twenty years somehow . It 's all gone now , and I 'll be as amiable as I know how . But since you have gone to the trouble of getting my supper for me , Nancy , you must stay and help me eat it . Them strawberries look good . I have n't had any this summer -- been too busy to pick them . '' Nancy stayed . She sat at the head of Peter 's table and poured his tea for him . She talked to him wittily of the Avonlea people and the changes in their old set . Peter followed her lead with an apparent absence of self-consciousness , eating his supper like a man whose heart and mind were alike on good terms with him . Nancy felt wretched -- and , at the same time , ridiculously happy . It seemed the most grotesque thing in the world that she should be presiding there at Peter 's table , and yet the most natural . There were moments when she felt like crying -- other moments when her laughter was as ready and spontaneous as a girl 's . Sentiment and humour had always waged an equal contest in Nancy 's nature . When Peter had finished his strawberries he folded his arms on the table and looked admiringly at Nancy . `` You look well at the head of a table , Nancy , '' he said critically .
`` How is it that you have n't been presiding at one XXXXX your own long before this ?
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