Page:Daphne, an Autumn Pastoral.djvu/131

 "Stop!" begged Daphne, putting out her hands. "You must not say such things to me, for I am not free to hear them. I must go away," and she turned toward home. But he grasped one of the outstretched hands and drew her to the stone bench near the fountain, and then seated himself near her side.

"Now tell me what you mean," he said quietly.

"I mean," she answered, with her eyes cast down, "that two years ago I promised to love some one else. I must not even hear what you are trying to say to me."

"I think, Miss Willis," he said gently, "that you should have told me this before."

"How could I?" begged the girl. "When could I have done it? Why should I?"

"I do not know," he answered wearily; "only, perhaps it might have spared me some shade of human anguish."

"Human?" asked Daphne, almost smiling.