And so, to his amazement and dismay, was Harry Matthews brought face to face with a total abstinence pledge. What an apparently simple request to make! How almost impossible it seemed to him to comply with it!
He made no attempt to take the little book, but stood in embarrassment before it.
"Isn't there anything else?" he said, at last, trying to laugh. "I hadn't an idea that you would ask anything of this sort. I can't sign it, Miss Benedict; I can't really, though I would like to please you."
"What is in the way, Mr. Matthews? Have you promised your mother not to sign it?"
The flush on his cheek mounted to his forehead, but still he tried to laugh and speak gayly.
"Hardly! my mother's petitions do not lie in that direction. But I really am principled against signing pledges. I don't believe in a fellow making a coward of himself and hanging his manhood on a piece of paper."
This was foolish. Would it do to let the young fellow know that she knew it was?
"Then you do not believe in bonds, or mortgages, or receipts, or promises to pay, of any sort—not even bank-notes!"
He laughed again.
"That is business," he said.