I'm going to stand by you and see
you through this trouble. Just count on me to shield you in every
possible way. I don't care what the world thinks of me, but never
a tongue shall wag against you again, or there will be a heavy score
to settle with me. Van and I have been good friends, but he's on
ticklish ground now. He'll find he can't play fast and loose with
two such women as you and Jennie Burton. Curse it all! it isn't
like him to do it either. But the world is topsy-turvey, anyhow."
"Ik, I plead with you, say nothing, do nothing. Be blind and deaf
to everything of which we have spoken. Only help me hide my secret
and get away from this place to some other where I am not known."
"Has your father any idea of all this?"
Ida explained in part her father's knowledge.
"We can easily manage it then," he said. "I had decided to leave
next week. Miss Burton leaves for her college duties very soon
also. The idea of that fragile flower being trampled on nine months
of the year by a crowd of thoughtless, heedless girls! And so our
disastrous summer comes to an end. And yet I'm wrong in applying
that term to my own experience. I wish you felt as I do, Ida.
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