"If you promise to take some right along, I'll tell you." But she evidently was not eager to disclose her secret, for she promptly replaced the phial in her pocket and said, "I'll make a bargain with you, Constance. If you'll marry Gordon Perry, Esq., Counsellor-at-Law, I'll keep straight."
Constance flushed. "But I can't, dear. It's all settled."
"He will come back if you only whistle. You know that."
Constance let her eyes fall. She feared that it was too true. But she could not afford to be pensive. She must be both resolute and resourceful, for the future of this erring sister seemed to be hanging in the balance.
"I can never marry Mr. Perry, Loretta. But——"
"I thought better things of you, Constance. Oh! well then I'll go back to my man."
"If you should do such a thing it would break Mrs. Wilson's heart."
This seemed to Constance in her perplexity the most hopeful appeal, and she was right, for Loretta was obviously impressed by the remark.
"Would it?" she asked. She looked down at her large hands and let them rise and fall in her lap like one nervously touched by sentiment.
"I do not know of anything which would distress her more," continued Constance.