Rather a
girl, beautiful, brilliant, spirited, to be shielded from every jostle
of existence; the sort of girl whom men hold it a test of manhood to
protect from even the most passing discomfiture!
But time was moving apace. We must settle on something in short order. I
spoke in the most matter-of-fact tones that I could summon, not, heaven
knows, out of a feeling of levity concerning what had happened, but to
try to lighten the grim business a degree or so and keep us sane.
"I think, Miss Falconer," I began, standing before her, "that we
have got to thrash this matter out at last. You think I've behaved
unspeakably, trailing you everywhere, and I don't deny I have, according
to your point of view. But the fact is, I didn't follow you to annoy
you; I'm a half-way decent fellow. You have simply got to trust me until
I've seen you through this tangle. After that, if you like you need
never look at me again."
Her troubled eyes rested on me, half bewildered.
"Why, I'd forgotten all that," she murmured. "I do trust you, Mr. Bayne.
Of course I must have misunderstood you to some way last evening, and
I'm afraid I was disagreeable.
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