'Will you promise me one thing, Gladys, before I go?' he pleaded, and he had never been more in earnest in his life. 'Promise me that if anybody speaks ill of me to you, you will at least give me a chance to clear myself before you condemn me.'
'Oh, I can promise that fast enough, because nobody ever speaks ill of you to me. It is quite the reverse, I assure you. I have to listen to your praises all day long,' she said, with a teasing smile. 'You ought to show your gratitude for such disinterested kindness by coming up to the ladies.'
'I'm not going up to-night,' he reiterated. 'Give them my kind regards. Are you really off?'
'I must, if you won't come.'
He held open the door for her, and as she passed out, stole another kiss with all a lover's passion, telling himself it might be the last. But it did not make her pulses thrill nor her heart beat more quickly, and she saw him depart without a regret.
'You don't mean to say that is George away?' they cried, when the outer hall door closed, and almost immediately Gladys entered the drawing-room alone.
'Yes, he has gone,' Gladys answered calmly.
'What have you been doing to him to set him off like that?' asked Mina. 'Have you had a quarrel?'
'No,' replied Gladys innocently; 'but I think he is rather cross.'
Mrs. Fordyce shook her finger reprovingly at the girl, and said regretfully,—