nell," I said with all the earnestness which
the circumstances really warranted, "that I have not behaved in any way,
to my knowledge, of which you might be ashamed for my sake. I came in
this evening to ask your sympathy; and, here, you accuse me like this,
without waiting to hear a word I have to say! Miss Pimpernell, you are
unjust to me. I will go."

And I made as if to leave the room in a huff.

"Stop, Frank," said the dear little old lady, rising to her feet, and
speaking to me again with something of her old cordial manner--"You
speak candidly; and I've always known you to tell the truth, so I won't
doubt you now. Perhaps things have only got into a muddle after all.
Let me see if I cannot get to the bottom of it, and set them straight
for you! You will not deny, I suppose, Frank, that up to a short time
since you've been in the habit of paying a good deal of attention to
Minnie Clyde?"

"Miss Clyde is nothing to me now!" I said grandly: I did not deceive
her, however, nor turn her from her purpose.

"Wait a minute, my boy, and hear me out. You won't deny that you have
been what you call `spoony,' in your abominable slang, eh, Frank?" she
repeated, with a knowing glance from her beady black eyes.

"Pay her attention, Miss Pimpernell," I said impetuously. "Good
heavens! Why, at one time I would have died for her, and let my body be
cut into little pieces, if it would only have done her any good!"

"Softly, Frank," responded the old lady. "I don't think that _would_
have done her any good, or you either, for that matter! But, why have
you changed towards her, Frank? I never thought you so false and
fickle, my boy. She came in here to see me to-day, looking very excited
and unhappy; and when she had sat down--there, in that very chair you
are now sitting in," continued Miss Pimpernell, emphasising her words by
pointing to the corner I occupied, "and I asked her soothingly what
distressed her, she burst into tears, and sobbed as if her little heart
would break. I declare, my boy," said the warm-hearted little body,
with a husky cough, "I almost cried myself in company. However, I got
it all out of her afterwards. It seems to me, Frank, that you have
behaved very unkindly to her. She thought she had offended you in some
way of which she declared that she was perfectly ignorant: she had asked
you, she said, but you would not tell her--treating her as if she were a
perfect stranger. She's a sensi