"Yes--that's the secret! You think she's happy but she has a secret sorrow and I found it out!"
"Oh, tell us! What is it? Do hurry, Pat!"
Pat's voice dropped to a fittingly sorrowful note. "It was a disappointed love, I think! That silly malady even attacked poor Aunt Pen, though she isn't like lots of people and doesn't go round with a broken heart within her bosom and sighing and weeping like they do in stories! I guessed it when she asked me so many questions about Captain Allan, Renée's guardian, you know, and she looked so funny and red when she was asking them just like I do when I'm saying one thing but really wanting to say another! Then she wanted to see a letter he had written to Renée and Renée brought it, and I watched her face and then I knew! It turned fiery red and then white and she did the queerest thing--she kissed that letter, real quick--just a plain letter he'd written to Renée! I couldn't believe my eyes that it was Aunt Pen! She knew I saw her and she began to laugh and then to sort of cry! She told us that she was sure it was a Mr. Allan she had known her senior year in college! I begged her to tell more but she just said 'there isn't any more to tell!' and we couldn't get another word out of her! Of course Aunt Pen has a right to hide her own secret sorrow away but she can't stop my putting it into a ballad! Only I can't think of anything to rhyme with 'long'--except 'song' and I've used that!"
"Go right through the alphabet, Pat! Bong, cong, dong----"
"Now don't you girls tell a soul that I'm going to be a poet!" Pat admonished.
Peggy sprang to her feet. "Girls--let's make a solemn pledge to stick to our ambitions and not let a single thing stop us! And we'll help one another!"
"We must have a pass-word! Let's have it 'Steadfast!'"
"We ought to have a motto, too!"
"I know a Latin one, 'Labor omnia vincit!' How's that?"
"Spliffy! Now to do this right, girls, we must have a ceremony! Stand up--in a circle! Hold hands--thumbs in--like this! Now all say the motto together! What was it, Keineth?"