ong, weary weeks, that I must be refused
these few moments--moments that I must perforce steal from you if I am to
get them at all? Do I need to tell you what a blank my life will be while
you are away; and not only a blank, but a fearful dream of blasted hopes
and weary longing? Oh, Dexie, take away some of the bitterness that your
absence will cause, by giving me, at least, the promise that you will not
forget me while you are away."

"Not forget you, indeed!" she said in a rising voice. "I may forgive you
this insult, but you may be sure that I will do my best to forget you, just
as quickly as I can. I am not given to remembering unpleasant things."

"Dexie, do not talk so bitterly; you do not mean it; say you do not,
Dexie?" he said, entreatingly. "You are vexed at being kept here against
your will; come, then, let us go inside and talk it over quietly," he
added, persuasively, and he reached for her hand.

"But I _do_ mean every word of it," and she stepped back out of his reach,
"and if you do not wish to hear me express myself more plainly, I'd advise
you to open the window at once."

"Hear me a moment, Dexie. I know you are prejudiced against me on account
of Gussie; but give me time to prove that I am in earnest when I say that
it is you that I love," and her hands were instantly imprisoned in his
strong clasp, "and I love you, Dexie, with the intense love that a strong
man feels for the one woman who is all the world to him, a love that is not
to be compared with the boyish feeling that Lancy Gurney has for you. Give
me some hope, Dexie, that sometime in the future, when you have rightly
considered the matter, you will look on me with a more kindly feeling in
your heart than you are willing to own to to-night."

Dexie freed her hands by a great effort. His words had flowed like a
torrent from his lips, and she took a step back from him, as she replied,

"Mr. McNeil, I will _never_ regard you in the light you are thinking of, so
all this talk is worse than folly."

"Have I spoken too late?" he almost hissed.

His eyes seemed to burn as he looked into her face.

"Have you already promised yourself to Lancy? Tell me!"

"I will not!" came the defiant answer. "You have no right to ask such a
question, and I will not answer it!"

Her defiant air and scornful words angered him. He had buoyed himself up
with the hope that if he once declared his love she would be touched with
the declaration, and, if she di