“Is going with me. You mustn’t tell, Felicia. We are going away this night.”
“Oh, so soon?”
“The sooner the better. I can’t stay here, for I will not let that man be my master.”
“Oh, but you do not have to go so soon! He doesn’t wish to take you away from here yet. You may stay with me a little longer, Dick.”
“No one knows when he may make up his mind to take me away. He wants to carry me away off to the East, and put me into a school, where I know I should die. It is dangerous to wait, Felicia.”
The girl fell to sobbing, and he put his arm about her.
“There, there!” he said, in a soft and soothing voice. “Don’t cry about it, dear cousin—please don’t. I’ll come back to you—I swear it! Before long I will be a man, and then he can’t take me from you. I’ll stay with you always then.”
He soothed her after a little, kissing away the tears.
“But you must promise not to tell a soul about what I am going to do,” he suddenly said. “He must not know it, for he would try to stop me.”
“If he should——”