"Have I—have I offended you? I—I thought"—her lips quivered—"we had agreed to be friends."
Max was silent a moment. Then he said slowly:—
"I can't keep that compact."
Diana's heart contracted with a sudden fear.
"Can't keep it?" she repeated dully. She could not picture her life—no—robbed of this friendship!
"No." His hands hung clenched at his sides, and he stood staring at her from beneath bent brows, his mouth set in a straight line. It was as though he were holding himself under a rigid restraint, against which something within him battled, striving for release.
All at once his control snapped.
"I love you! . . . God in heaven! Haven't you guessed it?"
The words broke from him like a bitter cry—the cry of a heart torn in twain by love and thwarted longing. Diana felt the urgency of its demand thrill through her whole being.
"Max . . ."