I yielded to the temptation to
"Alida, Alida," protested Holcroft, "if it were all to do over again, I’d be a thousand times more–"
"Oh, I know, I know! You are brave and generous and honest. I saw that much when you first spoke to me. I yielded to the temptation to secure such a friend. I was too cowardly to face the world alone. And now see what’s happened! You’re in danger and disgrace on my account. I must go away–I must do what I should have done at first," and with her face buried in her hands she rocked back and forth, overwhelmed by the bitterness and reproach of her thoughts.
"Alida," he urged, "please be calm and sensible. Let me reason with you and tell you the truth. All that’s happened is that the Oakville cubs have received a well-deserved whipping. When you get calm, I can explain everything so it won’t seem half so bad. Neither you nor I are in any danger, and, as for your going away, look me in the eyes and listen."
His words were almost stern in their earnestness. She raised her streaming eyes to his face, then sprung up, exclaiming, "Oh! You’re wounded!"
"What’s that, compared with your talk of going away?"
All explanations and reassurances would have been trivial in effect, compared with the truth that he had been hurt in her defense. She dashed her tears right and left, ran for a basin of water, and making him take her chair, began washing away the blood stains.
"Thunder!" he said, laughing, "How quickly we’ve changed places!"
"Oh, oh!" she moaned, "It’s a terrible wound; it might have killed you, and they WILL kill you yet."
He took her hands and held them firmly. "Alida," he said, gravely yet kindly, "be still and listen to me."
For a moment or two longer her bosom heaved with convulsive sobs, and then she grew quiet. "Don’t you know you can’t go away?" he asked, still retaining her hands and looking in her face.
"I could for your sake," she began.
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