“Hush!” she whispered, warningly, pointing to the girl on the other bench. “Oh, she is asleep,” Dick replied carelessly. “Don’t be too sure,” Penelope urged, gazing abstractedly towards the girl, her eyes soft with the feeling that was thrilling her heart. Like all girls Penelope never tired of hearing the man who had won her love swearing his devotion, but like all girls she preferred to be the sole and only listener to those vows, to that tone. “If she is awake she is the first young woman I ever saw who would let her new La Tosca sunshade lie on the ground,” he said laughingly. [Page 15] [Page 15] “She must be sleeping,” Penelope assented indifferently, glancing at the parasol lying in the dust where it had apparently rolled from the girl’s knee. Two gray squirrels, with their bushy tails held stiffly erect, came out on the dusty drive, and finding everything quiet scampered across to the green sward, where they stood upright in the green grass viewing curiously the unhappy lovers. Penelope had a mania for carrying peanuts to the Park to give to the animals. She took several from her reticule and tossed them towards the gray squirrels. The one, with a little whistling noise scampered up the nearest tree and the other, taking a nut in his little mouth, quickly followed. “I have not seen her move since we came here,” she said, returning to the subject of the girl. “Do you suppose she put her hat over her eyes in that manner to keep the light out[Page 16] of them, or was it done to keep any passers-by from staring at her?” [Page 16] “I don’t know,” carelessly. “Probably she is ill.” “Ill? Do you think so, Dick? I am going to speak to her,” declared Penelope, impulsively. “Don’t, I wouldn’t,” urged Dick. “But I will,” declared Penelope.
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