But she did not hesitate; immediately she came forward and held out her hand, saying:
“Mr. Merriwell, I said I would ask your pardon on my knees, but I can’t do it here in the street, and so perhaps you will not expect it.”
“Well, hardly!” laughed Frank. “I don’t know why you should ask my pardon at all.”
“I do! I ask it now, Mr. Merriwell! You were a gentleman, and I know I was not a lady. Oh, I have been so ashamed of myself when I thought it all over and realized what sort of an opinion you must have formed of me!”
“Miss Darling!”
“And I am trying to leave off slang, although I will make a break occasionally—there! I want to thank you for the heroic manner in which you came to my rescue when my clothes were on fire.”
“I am afraid you make too much of that. I fail to see where the heroism came in.”
“That—that fellow you just drove away did not make a move to help me, and he was the nearest of anybody! I don’t care, it was heroic of you!”
“All right,” smiled Frank; “if you are determined to have it that way, I’ll have to let you regard me as a hero.”
She looked him straight in the eyes, and softly said: