“I don’t quite understand——”
“Shall I call Jimmy to explain? He called you a heartless jade——”
“The little imp! How dare he!”
“—As in fact all of our brotherhood has come to call you: ‘The heartless jade.’”
“I made fudges for him! And the little wretch told me I wasn’t playing the game! What did he mean? Oh, Harry, I wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t wanted to play the game fairly. I’m sorry for what I said.” She spoke now suddenly, impulsively.
“What was it you said?”
“When I said—when I called you—a coward. I didn’t mean it.”
“You said it.”
“But not the way you thought. I only meant, you took an unfair advantage of a girl, running off with her, this way, and giving her no chance to—to get away. But now you do give me a chance—you meant to, all along—and in every way, as I’ve just done telling auntie, you’ve been perfectly fine, perfectly splendid, perfectly bully, too! It has been a hard place for a man, too, but—Harry, dear boy, I’ll have to say it, you’ve been some considerable gentleman through it all! There now!” And she stood, aloof, agitated, very likely flushed, though I could not tell in the dark.
“Thank you, Helena,” I said.