"No," answered Rand. "I have not. It is nothing—a bit of a cut that I gave myself."
He pushed the door open and poured out the stained water upon the ground, then took fresh from a bucket standing by and rinsed the basin before he set it down upon the table. "Vinie—"
"Yeth, thir."
"I want a promise from you."
"Yeth, Mr. Rand."
"You've always been my good friend, ever since long ago when you came from the little house in Richmond to this little house in Charlottesville, and I was reading law with Mr. Henning. Why, I don't know what I should do without you and Tom!"
Vinie's eyes filled. "I couldn't—Tom and me couldn't—do without you, Mr. Rand. You're our best friend, and we'd die for you, and you know it. I'll promise you anything, and I'll keep my promise."
"I know that you will. It's nothing more than this. Vinie, I don't want it known that I stopped here to-day, and I want you to forget—look at me, Vinie."
"Yeth, thir."
"I want you to forget what I asked you for, and what I did in Tom's room.