"I've said nothing definite," she answered, in a troubled voice.
"Then I shall!" Royal said, with sudden feeling. "I'm sick of this shilly-shallying, and weighing words! If he will accept me as I am, well and good--if not, I'm done! But he has a high opinion of you, Harriet; what you say really counts!"
"You know where I stand," she could only repeat. They had reached the garden now, and were at the foot of the steps.
"I don't quite see how you can take that tone," Blondin hinted. "Do you expect to marry the boy?"
Harriet did not answer, except by a faint shrug. Her heart was sick with fright, but there was no reason why he should be informed that she had definitely broken with Ward. But he had never come so near a threat before.
"Of course I am entirely at your mercy," she said, simply. Blondin watched her for a full moment of silence before he said suddenly:
"All I ask you to do is assume, for the time being, that you and I met as strangers a few weeks ago!"
"Oh, Roy," the girl exclaimed, "as if I were likely to do anything else!"
She despised herself for the sense of relief that flooded her heart.
"Look here then," he said, after a moment of thought. "I'll make a bargain with you. If you will consent not to make any allusion to--well, to ten years ago, I'll do the same. I'll give you my solemn promise on it. Say what you please about me now. You're under no bond to protect me. I can hold my own. But the past is dead. Neither you nor I will speak of it without agreeing to do so. How about it?"