"Please don't," she gasped, "or I shall go at once. I asked a favor."
"Pardon me, Miss Bodine," he now said in a tone and manner which quieted her nerves at once. "I have blundered again, but I was so happy to think that I had met you here. I am not wholly a rattle-brain. What would you like to talk about?" and he looked so kindly and eager to please her that she cast down her eyes and contracted her brow in deepest perplexity.
"Truly, Mr. Houghton, I should be on my way homeward, and you have so hedged me in that I cannot escape."
"Is running away from me escaping?"
"I don't like that phrase 'running away.'"
"Yet that is what you propose to do."
"Oh, no, I shall take my departure in a very composed and dignified manner."
His face had the expression of almost boyish distress. "You find on further thought that you cannot forgive me?" he asked sadly.
"Did I not say that was all explained and settled? Southern girls are not fickle or false to their word." And she managed to assume an aspect of great dignity. "If I do not shake him off in the next few minutes I'm lost," she thought.
"I've offended you again," he said anxiously.