"Certainly I have no reason to. And by the by, I already owe you money for the supper. I will send it you to-morrow."
"Why not bring it?"
"Better not. I have a good deal of an unpleasant quality which people call pride, and I don't care to make myself uncomfortable unnecessarily."
"You can't have more pride than I have. Look." She held out her hands. "Will you be my friend, really my friend? You understand me?"
"I think I understand, but I doubt whether it is possible."
"Everything is possible. Will you shake hands with me, and, when you come to see me again, let us meet as if I were a modest girl, and you had got to know me in a respectable house, and not in the street at midnight?"
"You really wish it? You are not joking?"
"I am in sober earnest, and I wish it. You won't refuse?"
"If I did I should refuse a great happiness."
He took her hand and again released it.