"I want no one but you," and held her tightly in his arms, while Bridgie
sniffed, and whimpered, like one of her own small children.
"But if P-ixie--_if_ Pixie is unhappy--if any wretched man breaks
Pixie's heart--"
"He couldn't!" Dick Victor said firmly. "No man could. That's beyond
them. Heart's like Pixie's don't break, Honey! I don't say they, may
not ache at times, but breaking is a different matter. Your bantling is
grown-up: you can keep her no longer beneath your wing. She must go out
into the world, and work and suffer like the rest, but she'll win
through. Pixie the woman will be a finer creature than Pixie the
child!"
But Bridgie hid her face, and the tears rushed into her eyes, for hers
was the mother's heart which longed ever to succour and protect, and
Pixie was the child whom a dying father had committed to her care. It
was hard to let Pixie go.