Dolly started and would have freed herself, but she found she could not do it without making more effort than she was willing to use. She stood still, fluttering, trembling, and at the same time not a little abashed.
"What is troubling you, Dolly?"
Dolly dared not look and could not speak. Silence made an admission, she knew; nevertheless, she could find no words to say.
"Don't you love me well enough to tell me?"
"Oh, it isn't that," cried Dolly; "it's because"——
Here Dolly's revelations came to an end, and yet she had revealed a good deal. A dark glow came into the young officer's eyes. Truly, she had before never told him so much as that she loved him. But his next words were spoken in the same tone with the foregoing. It was very affectionate, and withal there was a certain accent of authority in it. I think it awed Dolly a little. She had known really very little of authority, as exercised towards herself. This was something very unlike her father's careless acquiescence, or his careless opposition; very unlike the careless way in which he would sometimes throw his arm round her, affectionate though that was. The affection here was different, Dolly felt with an odd sort of astonishment; and the care, and the asserted right of ownership. It gave the girl a thrill of joy; at the same time it had upon her a kind of subduing effect. So came his next question, gently as it was put, and it was put very gently.
"Do you not think I have a right to know?"
"Perhaps," she stammered. "Oh, I don't know but you ought to know,—but how can I tell you! Oh, I don't know how I can tell you!"
Dolly trembled in her doubt and distress; she fought down tears. Both hands went up to cover her face.
"Is it a trouble in which I can help?"