“Well—I’ve said that I’ll tell you the whole truth, and I will; and the fact is I didn’t want to be asked questions about the—the accident yesterday. I—yes, I’ll speak out, though I should offend you—I wanted to keep it to myself!”
“To keep it to yourself?” she repeated.
A flush came to his tanned face, and his eyes were raised for a moment.
“Yes. When a man gets a good thing—Suppose—” he broke off—“a fellow found a big nugget, or a rare diamond, or anything of that sort, he would like to keep it to himself, you know!”
She smiled again.
“Do you want me to take that as a compliment?” she said. “Am I the big nugget, the rare diamond which you discovered?”
He flushed more deeply, and looked at her pleadingly.
“I’m such an idiot that I can’t express myself,” he said, apologetically. “I meant that the whole thing, your—your kindness and goodness to me was so precious that I didn’t want a lot of people talking about it. I wanted to keep it to myself, as something especially belonging to me, something too precious to discuss with others. I’m afraid I can’t make you understand.”
“You do yourself an injustice,” she said. “You express yourself very well!”
“Now, you are laughing at me,” he said.