Elsie did not reply immediately. It seemed that she was thinking. In truth, she was summoning her strength.
“It will be a long time before I am ready, I fear,” she finally answered. “You must not wait for me, Inza.”
“Oh, Elsie, that would spoil everything! Oh, we must wait! I shall insist upon it.”
Elsie turned and looked into the dark eyes of her companion.
“Inza,” she said, “I may not be married for a year—I doubt very much if I shall. I may not be married then. It is not right for you to wait longer. Frank has asked you; he is impatient. Too many times something has arisen to delay your union with him. Through it all your love has been constant and his has never changed.”
“Oh, no matter what happened, my love for Frank would remain the same.”
“You have been tried as with fire. There is no reason why you should permit anything to longer delay the consummation of your happiness and his. It would not be right to Frank if you did permit anything. You must marry him and go with him to Mexico for your wedding trip.”
“But why won’t you make it a double wedding? I do not understand——”
“When the boys were here in Baltimore I talked the matter over with Bart. He almost insisted that I should set a date. He wanted us to get together and agree on a date. I said no.”
“But why—why? I can’t understand why!”