“Because I want to ask you for a favor.”
“Ah, to lend you another sixty pounds?”
Leslie’s face turned very white.
“Do you know that you, my father’s old friend, are cruel,” she said.
“I don’t think so. On the contrary, I consider that I am most forbearing. A girl who can go into debt once, and conceal it from her friends, and send another girl——”
“Mr. Parker, you break my heart.”
“Again I repeat I am sorry, but I must have my say. I cannot grant your request, whatever it is, except in my own fashion. Now, speak up, and be quick. Being Leslie Gilroy, of course I cannot refuse you anything in reason.”
“You are doing much for me. I know it is for my mother’s sake and my father’s sake.”
“That’s about it.”
“And never, never more for my sake?”