“Reform.”

“If I stay here where you are, I shall say something to be regretted.”

“Who will regret it?”

“I. Your uncle and aunt, above all, your grandmother, will look on me as an adventurer. They will even accuse you of—”

“Of what?”

I could see him turn scarlet.

“I can’t say it.”

“You must.”

“Of having asked me down here knowing that—that I was fond of you.”

“Well, what of that? I’m not ashamed of that. I don’t believe that girls have to sit around without making any effort to get what they want in life.”