"I really came to ask you to help me, Peter."
"Then your need has brought me a pleasure, at least." Some impulse kept
the secretary making those foolish complimentary speeches which keep a
conversation empty and insincere.
"Oh, Peter, I didn't come here for you to talk like that! Will you do
what I want?"
"What do you want, Cissie?" he asked, sobered by her voice and manner.
"I want you to help me, Peter."
"All right, I will." He spaced his words with his speculations about the
nature of her request. "What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to help me go away."
Peter looked at her in surprise. He hardly knew what he had been
expecting, but it was not this.
Some repressed emotion crept into the girl's voice.
"Peter, I--I can't stay here in Hooker's Bend any longer. I want to go
away. I--I've got to go away."
Peter stood regarding her curiously and at the same time
sympathetically.
"Where do you want to go, Cissie?"
The girl drew a long breath; her bosom lifted and dropped abruptly.
"I don't know; that was one of the things I wanted to ask you about.
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