“Oh, I couldn’t! Had I thought such things wrongly of any one else, I’d never confessed it; but of you——”
“I understand, Bart. You had no reason to be jealous, for you know I am engaged to Inza.”
“Elsie does not know?”
“Because you have not told her, after asking the privilege to do so. I should have let her know it long ago but for that. Bart, you must tell her. It is not treating her right to keep it from her.”
Then Hodge confessed why he had not told her before—confessed that he feared she still cared for Merry.
“I hope you are not right, Bart. Something tells me that you are not. But you know it is possible that she believed she would be doing me an injustice if she learned to care more for another, and Elsie would not, to save her life, do anything she thought wrong. The safest way, Bart, is to tell her everything. If you will not, you must let me do it.”
“I will!” said Hodge resolutely. “There is to be a party out there, given for Elsie, and we’ll receive invitations to-morrow. At that party, I’ll find a way to tell her, Frank.”