"Well, I suppose it looks rude to refuse your help; but I am sure mamma and Gussie would think it improper, if I allowed you to remain," she answered, with downcast eyes.
"Is that the reason you do not wish me to stay with you?" and he smiled down at the bowed head. "Do you think conventionality should be considered when your father's comfort is in question?" he asked. "You know your father has often asked me to sit with him when he was restless and could not sleep, but you did not seem willing," he added, seeing she had no reply, "and I have been anxious to please you in all things, Dexie."
"There was no need to consult me about it," she replied, feeling vexed at the tone that implied so much more than he had a right to express under the circumstances, and taking her work-basket to the far side of the table she sat down to work.
"Must I go or may I stay, Dexie? at least till the time of your father's usual attack? Be kind this once and say I may stay."
"As you please. There is a new book of poems, and a late New York paper," said she presently, feeling that she must say something. "They will help to pass away the time."
But Guy Traverse had no intention of passing his time over reading-matter, something of a more personal nature was in hand. Dexie was determined she would not be the first to break the silence, and the ticking of the clock was the only sound heard for some time.
"And so my attentions are obnoxious, Miss Dexie? I was grieved to hear that, when I wished them to be the opposite."
The words, low and tender, brought painful heart-throbs to Dexie's bosom, but she hastily answered:
"You said they should not be so in the future; so please say no more on the subject," and glad to escape from his earnest gaze, she rose and looked into her father's room.
Finding him quietly sleeping, she soon returned, and folding up her finished work, laid aside the basket, then brought from a drawer a frame containing the delicate piece of needlework her father referred to, and began to pass the needle back and forth. Presently Guy came over to her side, and stood looking down at the work in her hands; then said with a smile: