“He likes Nina very much,” went on Arthur innocently, almost as if thinking aloud. “And he thinks her so very pretty.”
“Does he? Did he say so?” said Lettice quickly; and a curious expression, which Arthur did not observe, passed over her face.
“Oh, ever so many times. He thinks her almost an angel, I believe;” and Lettice would have liked to hear more, but there was no time.
“Arthur, you will do your best, will you not?” were her last whispered words to her brother. “Remember, if you don’t succeed, it will break my heart; and I believe,” in a still lower voice, “it would have broken papa’s and mamma’s.”
A look of intense pain came into the poor boy’s eyes, and he did not speak. Then with sudden resolution he turned to his sister.
“Yes,” he said, though his voice was unlike itself, “I will do my best.”