"Isn't it absurd? What do you think I ought to do? What would you say to him?"
Elijah Clifford looked at Lucy Gray strangely. And then he said very, very quietly:
"Miss Gray, do you think you ought to ask me such a question? Answer it out of your own heart. I have no business to advise you in such a matter."
Lucy Gray gave him one searching look, as her face flamed.
"Give me the letter," was all she said.
Elijah handed it to her, and in some way their fingers touched as Lucy took the letter, and then she deliberately tore it into bits and scattered the pieces down upon the top of the log.
A sudden light came into Elijah Clifford's eyes.
"Is that your answer to it?" he said, moving over on the log a little nearer to Lucy.
"Yes," she answered, and it is a historical fact that she did not move back any. But she said afterwards that she was sitting near the end of the log and couldn't have moved far without falling off and that Elijah knew it.
"Then you don't need my advice? What made you ask for it?"