“God forbid!” responded the colonel, anxiously.
“Well, then, do as I ask you. Ah, you and I are such old friends—you won’t refuse me what I have so set my heart on.”
“Well, well, well!” he exclaimed, pacing up and down, and tugging at his mustache furiously. “I——Confound it, how can I refuse you? You would coax the heart out of a stone dog. But I’m doing the maddest, wickedest thing, and I’ll have to answer for it to the squire, and Lord knows whom else! There—don’t cry!”
“I am not crying!” she said, biting her lip.
“I’ll send up and ask him——”
“No!” she said, quickly, and she put her hand on his arm. “You must not do that; you must take me to him unannounced; you must not give him time or the chance to refuse to see me. Take me to him now!”
Colonel Summerford pursed his lips.
“I don’t know who could resist you; I can’t!” he said in despair, and he held out his arm. “Mind, you are to stay a few minutes only, and the warder——”
“There must be no one with us,” she said, firmly. “No one. I must be alone.”
The colonel groaned.