“What is it?”
“Come with me.”
“With you? But where?”
“Come on home with me. I’ll tell Father that you’re going to stay there, and that’ll be all there is to it. He won’t object; he knows better.”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” she says, hastily.
“Why not? It would settle things with your family. I know that type. They’d never bother you again; they would cut you off completely.”
She is staggered, and obviously does not know how to answer.
“You’re a real friend,” she says, at last. “It’s good of you to offer. But....”
“Not so generous, after all. Certainly I don’t have to tell you that I love you and all that, do I? We know better than to waste our time with such sentimental stuff. But you know that I’d be only too glad....”
“I don’t know,” she says, thoughtfully. “Honestly, I never thought about it. It’s part of my training, I suppose, but it’s hard to decide to do a thing like that, right away.”