“Listen to me, Jessie,” he insisted. “I want you to know about these things. If you and I are ever to make each other happy, you must try to grow up with me. That was why I was glad to have you here—you would have a chance to see for yourself. Now I ask you not to go without seeing.”
“But I have to go, Hal. I can't ask Percy Harrigan to stay and inconvenience everybody!”
“You can stay without him. You can ask one of the ladies to chaperon you.”
She gazed at him in dismay. “Why, Hal! What a thing to suggest!”
“Why so?”
“Think how it would look!”
“I can't think so much about looks, dear—”
She broke in: “Think what Mamma would say!”
“She wouldn't like it, I know—”
“She would be wild! She would never forgive either of us. She would never forgive any one who stayed with me. And what would Percy say, if I came here as his guest, and stayed to spy on him and his father? Don't you see how preposterous it would be?”