Lola looked at him incredulously, but saw that he was telling the truth. "The sly thing!" she exclaimed under her breath. "But tell her _again_! I declare if I were a man and loved Elise—and I would love none else—I’d tell her so every time I saw her." "Oh I’ll not love another—no fear of that," Evans replied half lightly; "but as for telling her again, self-respect will not—" "Self-respect—fudge! If I loved a girl I’d tell her so a hundred times—and marry her too—in spite of everything." "Perhaps so," Evans commented skeptically. Lola was shooting in the dark, but her warm heart would not let her leave the matter at rest. Both because of her desire, being happily in love herself, to see the love affairs of her friends go smoothly, and because of the riddle it presented to her, she approached Elise again in order to straighten out the tangled skein for everybody’s satisfaction. She thought to match her wits against Elise’s and proceeded with more caution. "By the way, Elise," she said, apropos of nothing at all, "I think you were right about Senator Rutledge’s being very much in love with that young woman you told me about." Elise exhibited a perfect indifference and said nothing. "I asked him about her, after becoming duly confidential and sympathetic, of course, and he confirmed your statement. He still loves the girl—oh, you ought to hear him tell of it. ’He will never love another till he’s dead, dead, dead,’—or words to that effect: but he will not tell her—" Elise was listening with a polite but languid interest. "—again. He thinks his self-respect forbids; but _I_ think—" "Did he say that? To you?" Elise demanded. "Yes; when I asked h—" "Well now, once and for all, Lola, I tell you I despise that man, and never must you mention his name to me again!" "But Elise, I think he—" "Stop, Lola! I’ll not hear another word!" "But let me tell you, Elise. He—" "No! Stop _now_! Not another word if you care for my friendship. I’ll never speak to you again if you speak of him to me!" Elise’s anger was at white heat, and she looked and spoke like her father. Lola was frightened at her manner, but made another brave attempt to set matters straight, which was met by such a blaze of personal resentment in Elise’s eyes that she gave up in abject defeat—though she did pluck up courage to fire a parting shot. "Very well, my dear," she said, as if dismissing the subject.... "I have something of yours I must give you before I go. There—take it," and she kissed the expectant Elise warmly on the lips as she added: "Senator Rutledge gave it to me by mistake as he carried me up the hill the other night." *CHAPTER XIX*