"But I want to get it over with first," said Marguerite sitting up and trying to stop the tears with the big handkerchief. "Indeed I can't rest till you know what a fool I've been."
"All right," said Nelson, "you've been a fool, have you? Well, I love you anyway. Have you had any breakfast? No, I thought not. Well, neither have I. What if we stop somewhere and get some?"
"But I can't go anywhere with my eyes all red," objected the girl, dabbing away at them and looking as pretty as a picture even with a red nose, and her lashes all wet.
"That's all right," said the young man easily, "we're going to get out pretty soon and walk around the park a little. I think we'll find a fountain or a spring or a lake or something wet, and we'll mop up and get cooled off and then we'll go and get fed."
Marguerite giggled hysterically.
"You are always so good," she murmured, and then refinished it, "so—dear!"
He stooped over and kissed her gravely on the forehead.
"Thank you for that, little one. Now, are you ready to get out and find that fountain?"
"Wait," said the girl sitting up, her face clouded with trouble again. "Wait, Nelson, we can't go on like this. We can't even be friends again till I tell you everything. It—chokes me!"
"Out with it, then!" said the young man calmly, "but make it snappy. Make a clean breast of it in three sentences."