“Yes, dear, very,” replied Mrs. Dupont.
“Mamma, do you want me to tell a lie?”
“I have always told you to speak the truth, my child,” replied her mother, somewhat evasively.
“No, but do you want me to tell one now?”
Mrs. Dupont caught the child to her bosom as she whispered:
“No, dear.”
She then turned with a look of anguish to her visitors, and said:
“It’s of no use, gentlemen; I cannot ask my child to tell a falsehood even for this. I have always taught her to shun an untruth, and I cannot be the first to bid her speak one.”
Dora threw herself into her mother’s arms again, and bursting into tears, said, between her sobs:
“Mamma, if Robbie was sorry, I should be—because—because if he didn’t want me for his wife I shouldn’t want to be.”