Please shun him, please avoid
him--in mercy do. I've more than I can bear now; and if--if--"
and she buried her face in her hands.
"And can my poor life be of such value to you, Miss Burton?" he
asked, in a deep low tone.
"Ah! you cannot understand," she said, with a sudden and passionate
gesture, "and I entreat you not to ask me to explain. From the
first you have been kind to me. I have felt from the day we met
that I had found a friend in you; and your risk, your care for me
to-day, gives you a peculiar claim as a friend, but in mercy do
not ask me to explain why I am so urgent in my request. I cannot,
indeed I cannot--at least not now, in this place. Something
happened--Sudden death in one young, strong, and full of hope, like
you, seems to me horrible--horrible. In mercy promise to incur no
risk on my account," she said passionately, and almost wildly.
"My poor little friend, how needlessly frightened you are!" he
said, soothingly and gently. "There, I will promise you anything
that a man of honor can. But a word against you, Jennie Burton,
touches me close, very close. As said the Earl of Kent, 'It invades
the region of my heart.'"
She looked up swiftly and questioningly, and then a sudden crimson
suffused her face.
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