"No, but really--I haven't the least right to--"
"The least right! I thought you had promised to be my friend,--my firm, steadfast, constant friend. Ah, if you knew how I have longed for such a friend,--one in whom I could confide, and who would advise me!"
She dropped her head on her breast as she said this, and the red rays of the dying sun touched the tight braids of her chestnut hair with gold.
"Such a friend you will find in me," said Mitford; "I meant it when I said it--I mean it now."
"No," said Laura plaintively, "no; you have other ties and other claims upon you, and it must not be. The world cannot understand such confidence as I would give and receive; it is too pure and too earnest for worldly comprehension.--Already--but I won't speak of that."
"Finish your sentence, please."
"No, it was nothing, really nothing."
"Then tell me, or I shall fancy it was something. Tell me."
"How you compel me to obey you! I was going to say--it's excessively silly of me; very probably it was only my own foolish notion, but I'm so nervous and anxious about anything which concerns--my friends; I thought that Lady Mitford seemed a little annoyed at your obvious intention of riding with me this morning."
She stole a look at him under her hat to see how he received this shot.