I know every time you head
me off. But if you'll just let me get it off my chest this once, then I
promise to keep the cork in if it busts the bottle!"
Eleanor laughed in spite of herself.
"All right," she said; "I'll listen."
"Well," said Quin, "it's this way. I know you don't care a tinker's damn
for me in the way I care for you. But you can't deny that you do like me
some. You wouldn't talk to me like you do and let me do things for you if
you didn't. What I want you to promise is that whenever you need a
friend--a _best_ friend, mind you--you will come straight to me."
He looked worth coming to as he stood there, big and strong and earnest;
and Eleanor, being young and a woman, promptly forgot her good
resolutions not to encourage him, and rose impulsively and held out her
hand.
"I do promise, Quin," she said, "and I thank you with all my heart."
Then a curious and unexpected thing happened to her. As she stood there
on the lonely country road with her hand in his, a curious, deep, still
feeling crept over her, a queer sensation of complete satisfaction that
she never remembered to have felt before. For a long moment she stood
there, her cheek almost touching that outrageous plaid tie that had so
recently excited her derision.
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