She smiled wanly, and sat thinking for a while, her pale face pressed between her hands. Presently she looked up.
"Are we so truly friends then, Euan? At the Spring Waiontha it almost seemed as though it could come true."
"You know it has come true."
"Do I?"
"Do you not know it, little Lois?"
"I seem to know it, somehow.... Tell me, Euan, does a true and deathless friendship with a man—with you—mean that I am to strip my heart of every secret, hiding nothing from you?"
"Dare you do it, Lois?" I said laughingly, yet thrilled with the candour of her words.
"I could not let you think me better than I am. That would be stealing friendship from you. But if you give it when you really know me—that will be dear and wonderful——" She drew a swift breath and smiled.
Surprised, then touched, I met the winning honesty of her gaze in silence.
"Unless you truly know me—unless you know to whom you give your friendship—you can not give it rightly. Can you, Euan? You must learn all that I am and have been, Is not this necessary?"