“Then promise me, will you, that you will take time to think over it?—don’t be——” She clung to him affectionately, and her eyes filled with tears.

“You are a dear girl, Freddie, but really——”

“You think it absurd of me, perhaps, to venture to advise you?”

“Not at all. On the contrary, I am most sincerely grateful to you for it; but still, you must not allow yourself to be guided by a mere idea, or rather an antipathy, for which there is not even a reason, and to judge another person so harshly. Accept and follow that advice, then I shall not think you absurd, but a dear, dear little sis.”

He kissed her repeatedly, and she rested her head shyly on his shoulder. [[107]]

“You won’t be angry with me, will you now? Perhaps I have been clumsy; I should not have spoken like that.”

“To me you are most dear when you are most outspoken to me, and I hope you will always be so.”

“Then perhaps I shall be discourteous and unamiable,” she answered with emphasis.

“And now you are just a little spiteful. What is it? Are you jealous of Eline?”

“Yes,” she answered curtly.