"But I ask you; it is my wish," she returned with a touch of command.
"For my sake, or yours?" he rejoined.
"For both. Give me your promise. You must if we are to remain friends."
Her look and the fascination in her voice seemed to pull the very heart
out of him.
"You are asking a cruelly hard thing of me," he replied, with a tremor in
his voice. "I don't understand--"
"No, you don't understand," she interrupted quickly. "It is enough to
know that you have taken a girl's foolish commission too seriously, so
seriously as to run the risk of making things even worse than they
threatened to be. Now I ask you to leave well alone."
"If it is well," he said doubtfully.
"Of course. Why should it not be?" she rejoined, in a not very convincing
tone. "Now I shall rely on you--and I am sure it will not be in vain--to
respect my wishes. Things seem to be in a horrible muddle," she added
with a rather dreary laugh, "but let's hope they will right themselves
before long."
She rose, compelling him to rise too. Something in the tone and manner of
her last speech made him quite unwilling to end their conference, and
desperately anxious to speak out everything that was in his mind and try
to bring matters to a crisis.
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