Delicacy forbade me to mention it but Peggy had no such scruples . `` Well , Aunt Olivia , your beau is off , '' she announced cheerfully . `` You wo n't be bothered with him again . He is leaving on the mail train for the west . '' Aunt Olivia dropped her sewing and stood up . I have never seen anything like the transformation that came over her . It was so thorough and sudden as to be almost uncanny . The old maid vanished completely , and in her place was a woman , full to the lips with primitive emotion and pain . `` What shall I do ? '' she cried in a terrible voice . `` Mary -- Peggy -- what shall I do ? '' It was almost a shriek . Peggy turned pale . `` Do you care ? '' she said stupidly . `` Care ! Girls , I shall DIE if Malcolm MacPherson goes away ! I have been mad -- I must have been mad . I have almost died of loneliness since I sent him away . But I thought he would come back !
I must see him -- there is time to reach the station before the train goes XXXXX I go by the fields . ''
MacPherson Peggy for if in like on scruples to with