“Oh, Alick, dear, you are not going away again, are you?”
“Yes, my child; I shall be compelled to leave you again, and very soon. Now listen to me and be reasonable, my good little girl. I have kept my word and come back at the time I said I would. Have I not?”
“Yes, Alick,” she answered, in a low, meek voice.
“Well, in order to keep my word with you, Drusa, I had to leave my business and come off in a great hurry. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Alick.”
“And the state in which I left my affairs makes it absolutely necessary for me to go back to Richmond immediately.”
“Yes, Alick dear; but you will stay with me a day or two, at least?”
“No; I came only to keep my word with you. I must go back this evening.”
“Oh, Alick!” she exclaimed in a tone full of grief, as she let her work fall from her hands and gazed at him with a look of despair that she could not control.
“Come, come, little Drusa, do be rational, little girl! See what an effort I have made to keep my word with you—dropping my most important business at a critical juncture, just to come home and see you. Now, really, I do everything in the world I can to please you,” he said, so earnestly that he almost persuaded even himself that he did.