this shame and danger. I should have thought of it all, I ought to have died
rather than do you such a wrong."

"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.