Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/177

 V

The Scarlet Runner

UTSIDE in the drive, the Scarlet Runner snorted and puffed and grunted, thirsting, no doubt, for Georgie to come and begin his devil-may-care progress home across the county. But inside the hall, little Diana Leigh, who held for the moment Georgie's susceptible heart, was holding as well his two hands and begging him not to go.

"Oh, Georgie," she said sadly, "if you really cared, you would stay with me every moment you could spare; you would do everything I asked you to do; you would give up—"

"No," said Georgie firmly, "you don't understand. You think it's because I'm not in love with you. I love you—frightfully—and I ought to know what love is." 161