“Never promise her anything again!”
“I don’t think I will! But, as I was saying, I promised her to come and take Miss Rutland’s place—to come for that very purpose, and when I make a promise, however hard, I’m going to keep it.”
“Bravo for you! Not every girl does that.”
“Every high-principled girl does.” Her tones were severely uncompromising.
“Ought to, you mean,” rejoined her companion, with an incredulous laugh.
“No—does!”
Light words, lightly spoken, lightly gone! Alas! How these bubbles of talk, subtle as air, come back home after a time, to twit us with scorn, to taunt us with falsity, to impute wrong unto us, to arraign, to accuse, to denounce, to condemn out of our own lips.
“Here we are,” said Mell’s companion, still laughing at the idea of a young woman thinking it necessary to hold tight to her word. “Here we are. Now sit right down here and rest your head comfortably against this tree. I’ll be back in a twinkling.”
So he was, with a plate in his hand filled with edibles, and a bottle of sparkling wine.
“Eat,” commanded this eminently practical young man; “eat and drink. That’s all you need now to fetch you round completely.”