"She can't harm you, and I'll put a stop to her tricks. You see, Elaine, she is so infatuated with me, she can't keep away," he said, personal vanity uppermost.
"But, that's just what I want you to see, Philip; it would be running too great a risk to marry you."
"'Pon honor, love, I don't know how to shake her off."
"You did not seem to exert yourself last night. When I looked over my shoulder to speak to you in the crowd, coming out, she had her hand on your arm; and you were bending down listening to her."
"I know; and when you looked, she clutched her hold of my arm all the tighter," he said, with the eagerness of a child.
"What did she say?"
"She said, you shan't go home with her to-night."
"Exactly the same words she used that Sunday evening. Words and an act that will ever be stamped on my memory. That act came between my heart and yours, Philip, for all time," she said, sadly thinking of his foolish flightiness in allowing anything of the kind to break up their friendship, if no more. "You must see, Philip, that you should set me free."
"No, no; don't talk like that; you should want me all the more when you witness her infatuation," he said, with his juvenile air, attempting to kiss her.
"No, Philip; I cannot let you come near me with the occurrence of last evening so fresh in my memory."