"
"Then you do love me? You do not intend to tell me to go and never speak
to you again?"
"Don't you understand a girl's heart any better than that, Buck? She
never casts a man off for such things, if she truly loves him--though,
perhaps, she ought to! Love isn't a thing of the head, but of the heart.
I love you, Buck, and I am very sorry!"
He held her as if he meant never to let her go, and she submitted to his
crushing caress.
"You are true--true--true as steel!" he exultantly cried.
"Be careful, or you will be heard, dear! We are right by the house,
remember."
"Is your father in?"
"No, but he may return at any time. It would be terrible if he should
discover us here."
"What are we to do?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't know. I haven't had time to think. What you have confessed
has so upset me that I seem to know nothing else. I can't think of
anything else. You see, Buck, I can't tell father any more that you were
not--drunk that night!"
The hated word seemed to choke her.
"No!"
"And what shall I say to him?"
"I reckon that is entirely too much for me."
"But I will stand up for you all I can!"
"I allow that you are an angel!" he enthusiastically declared.
"You have a low conception of angels. I can't imagine one meeting a man
in this surreptitious fashion.
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