The boy had become a man, defender of woman, in a few moments, and he spoke with a sternness in his voice that never had been there before.
“Tell me,” he repeated. “I will not let them harm you.”
The girl ceased sobbing, but still clung to him.
“Harry wrote Uncle Barney the most terrible tales,” she said, drying her eyes with suspicious suddenness that he did not observe. “He told him about your coming here and Uncle Barney came this morning. He was furious and he said if I dared let you call on me again, or take me driving, he would pack my things and bundle me off home.”
The girl cunningly concealed the fact that her teachers also had reported to Barney Baldwin that she had been breaking rules and riding in automobiles with young men, that she had pretended to be riding with her cousin and when caught had declared that Harry had taken her riding and introduced her to the young man who brought her back to the school.
“It’s a shame,” declared the boy hotly. “They must be brutes to accuse you of such things when they know we never have been out of the school grounds together.”
“It’s because they hate you, Larry,” she persisted. “I told Uncle Barney you were my friend, and that I would not give you up”——
“You told them that?” The boy seemed bewildered.
“Yes, yes, Larry,” she repeated. “I told them I never would give you up. Now you must take me away—somewhere. You must marry me and we will go away and never see these hateful people again.”
Larry stepped back in surprise.