"Lies!" interrupted Elizabeth; "always lies! Sinking deeper into the pit every day. I tell you this constant deceit makes me hate myself!"
"Now you are going off again! Oh, my head!"
"Hush, I say! You are safe, at any rate!"
"Whatever comes, I shall not be dragged into it?" pleaded Elsie.
"No, no; have I not promised?" returned Elizabeth, in her anguish and her bitterness, hardly noticing the girl's selfish fears.
Elsie threw both arms about her neck and kissed her.
"You are so good!" she said. "Oh, I wish I wasn't such a weak little thing! Don't despise me, Bessie, because I can't do anything to help you."
"I don't—I don't. Your arm hurts me!" Elizabeth pushed the girl's caressing arm away, struggling hard to be calm.
"If I had never known——"
But Elizabeth checked the selfish wail.