"I—I can't tell," she stammered. "I didn't expect—I never thought——"
Even this Stainton had foreseen.
"Then don't hurry now," he said. He drew a chair beside her and quietly took her free hand. "Take your time. Take a week, two weeks, a month, if you choose."
"But it's so new; it's all so new," said Muriel. "I never suspected——Oh, I know girls are always supposed to guess; but really, really, I never, never——"
There was genuine pain in her voice.
"I don't know what is expected of most girls," said Stainton; "but of you I shall never expect anything but the truth."
She looked up at him with eyes perplexed.
"Yes—yes, that is just what I want to be: honest. And—don't you see?—that is just why—I am so uncertain—that is just why I can't, right away, tell you——"
He pressed her hand and rose. He did not like to hurt her.
"I ask only that you will think it over," he said. "Will you think it over, Muriel?"