"Are you mad, girl, to defy me like this?" he cried, setting his white teeth together, his eyes fairly blazing.
"I have no wish to defy you! I can not see why my refusing to walk with you should offend you!"
"Come, be reasonable," he urged; "let us have a little quiet talk. I have called at your boarding-house half a dozen times since you have been there, but that idiotic fool, who is half in love with me herself, would not let me see you. I might have known how it would be: I'll look for another boarding-place at once for you."
The interest he took in her alarmed her.
"I am very well satisfied where I am, Mr. Garrick," she answered, with dignity. "I beg that you will not call upon me, for I do not care to receive gentlemen callers."
Again a rage that was terrible to see flashed into his eyes.
"You must see me!" he hissed. "It is not for you to be chooser. Don't you see I have taken a fancy to you," he said, throwing off all reserve. "You must be mine! I never really knew what love meant until I saw you!"
"Stop! Stop!" panted Ida May. "I will not listen to another word. You must not talk to me of love!"
"Yes, I loved you, Ida May, from the first time I saw you. There was something about you which thrilled my heart and caused me to wish that you should be mine, cost what it would!"