"I know one thing," said Nan, and her voice was low and subdued, "if you go on like that, you'll frighten me away. Do you want to make your best friends miserable?"
"Why, certainly," replied Margaret. "What are friends for? I should dislike very much to have a friend that I couldn't make miserable. But if you think you are going to run away, come up to my room and we'll lock ourselves in, and then I know you can't get away."
"Now, what is the matter?" Nan insisted, when they had gone upstairs, and were safe in Margaret's room. She had seized her friend in her arms, and her tone was imploring.
"I don't think I can tell you, Nan; you would consider me a fool, and I want to keep your good opinion. But I can tell you a part of my troubles. He wants me to marry Francis Bethune! Think of that!" She paused and looked at Nan. "Well, why don't you congratulate me?"
"I'll never believe that," said Nan, decisively. "Did he say that he wanted you to marry Frank Bethune?" The "he" in this case was Pulaski Tomlin.
"Well, he didn't insist on it; he's too kind for that. But Francis has been coming here very often, until our friends in blue gave him a much-needed rest, and I suppose I must have been going around looking somewhat gloomy; you know how I am—I can't be gay; and then he asked me what the trouble was, and finally said that Francis would make me a good husband. Why, I could have killed myself! Think of me, in this house, and occupying the position I do!"
Such heat and fury Nan had never seen her friend display before. "Why, Margaret!" she cried, "you don't know what you are saying. Why, if he or Aunt Fanny could hear you, they would be perfectly miserable. I don't see how you can feel that way."
"No, you don't, and I hope you never will!" exclaimed Margaret. "Nobody knows how I feel. If I could, I would tell you—but I can't, I can't!"
"Margaret," said Nan, in a most serious tone, "has he or Aunt Fanny ever treated you unkindly?" Nan was prepared to hear the worst.
"Unkindly!" cried Margaret, bursting into tears; "oh, I wish they would! I wish they would treat me as I deserve to be treated. Oh, if he would treat me cruelly, or do something to wound my feelings, I would bless him."