The doings of Doris

by Agnes Giberne

"Must I say that? It sounds—brutal."

"It would be better, if you could say plainly that you do not care for him."

"But I do care! I care for him—more than I can say!"

"You have to give something of a reason."

"I don't see why. He knows it all. There—'you will understand.' What next?"

"Will you read aloud what you have written?"

Doris obeyed. "It sounds so disgustingly stiff."

"I think the stiffness is necessary." Mrs. Winton carried on the last sentence—"'And I confess that, on consideration, I fully agree with them in regarding our engagement as impossible."

Doris wrote the words, then flung down her pen. "Oh, it is hateful! If you only knew all that we have been to one another!"

"That was very wrong. He ought to have asked your father's permission first. But the more completely you can put a stop to the whole thing, once and for all, the kinder it will be to him."