"’You are very solemn and dull to-day. What has happened? Are you ill?’ As I said this I put out my hand and just touched his arm. ’Can I not help you in any way? Tell me, what has been disturbing you so much lately? We are friends, you know, and friendship is a poor thing where there is no confidence. Besides, if you remember, I have already confided in you once.’ "He was trembling visibly, and looking up into his face, I knew that I had conquered. "’I cannot tell you this,’ he said; ’do not ask me.’ "’Oh, very well!’ I replied, pretending not to understand him. ’Of course a girl’s sympathy is not likely to be any use to you. It was absurd of me to fancy that it might be, and very probably you think I am not to be trusted.’ "’It is cruel of you to say that,’ he replied. ’There is no one I would sooner trust. There is no one whose sympathy I long for more. But cannot you understand that there are some things that I may have no right to speak to you about--have no right to feel, perhaps; but our feelings we cannot always control, though our words we can.’ "’Oh, I don’t want you to make me your confidant about anything which you consider I had better not hear,’ I said, purposely still seeming to misunderstand him. ’Of course I can quite see that you may have something on your conscience which it would not do for you to tell me. However, I am sorry.’ "’It is not that I’ve done anything that could not be told to a woman,’ he replied, getting up from the ground and standing over me. ’Oh! why cannot you understand that it is to you, and you only, that I may not speak, because to tell you would be to make things worse, not better?’ "’Whatever are you talking about?’ I cried. ’Tell me at once what you mean. You have said either too much or too little, and I am justified in asking you to explain fully; or if you prefer to keep your secret from me, it must be at the cost of our friendship.’