"Don't, Cassie—please don't!" he entreated. "You hurt me! The others will see you, little girl!"
"I don't care!"
"Oh, yes, you do! What'll they think? They will get an idea that——"
"I tell you I don't care!"
"——there is something wrong between us," continued Frank, on the broken sentence. "They will think queer of me, and——"
Cassie braced up wonderfully.
"I didn't think of that," she said, trying to wipe her tears away without wiping off her make-up. "I don't want them to get a wrong idea of you, Frank."
For herself she did not care; but for him it was different.
"I am awfully sorry about it, Cassie," said Merriwell, soothingly; "but perhaps it is not so bad. You must try again to get rid of the habit."