"Then you will do what I ask? You are also a good friend of Mrs. Wentworth?"
A little cloud flitted over his face but she did not see it.
"We do not speak of the absent when the present holds all we care for," he said lightly.
She took no notice of this, but went on: "I do not think you would wittingly injure any one."
He laughed softly. "Injure any one? Why, of course I would not--I could not. My life is spent in making people have a pleasant time--though some are wicked enough to malign me."
"Well," she said slowly, "I do not think you ought to come to Cousin Louise's so often. You ought not to pay Cousin Louise as much attention as you do."
"What!" He threw back his head and laughed.
"You do not know what an injury you are doing her," she continued gravely. "You cannot know how people are talking about it?"
"Oh, don't I?" he laughed. Then, as out of the tail of his eye he saw her troubled face, he stopped and made his face grave. "And you think I am injuring her!" She did notice the covert cynicism.
"I am sure you are--unwittingly. You do not know how unhappy she is."