Forgive me and
I will go away again."
He turned to leave the room, but with his foot on the threshold, paused,
and then walked back to the desk where the girl sat, leaning forward
with her face buried in her arms.
"There's just one thing though, that I must say before I go. Are you
in need of any help? If so, let me be of use to you; I am still your
friend."
The brown head was raised and two glistening eyes proudly pleading
looked at Dick.
Through a mist in his own eyes he saw two hands outstretched and heard
a voice say, "I do need your help. Don't go. That is--I mean--leave
me here now and to-morrow call, and I will tell you all. Only trust
me this once."
Dick took the outstretched hands in his and stood for a moment with
bowed head; then whispered softly, "Of course I will stay. Shall I
come at this hour to-morrow?" Amy nodded, and he passed out of the
building.
Had Dick looked back as he strode swiftly toward the timber, he would
have seen a girlish form in the door holding out her hands; and had
he listened as he climbed the fence, he might have heard a sweet voice
falter, "Oh Dick, I love you. I love you." And just as he vanished at
the edge of the woods, the girl who was more than all the world to
him, fell for the second time in her life, fainting on the floor.
All the forenoon of the next day, Dick wandered aimlessly about the
farm, but somehow he never got beyond sight of the little white
school-house. He spent an hour watching the colts that frolicked in
the upper pasture, beyond which lay the children's playground; then
going through the field, he climbed the little hill beyond and saw the
white building through the screen of leaves and branches.
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