Page:The Private Life, Lord Beaupré, The Visits (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1893).djvu/225

Rh any one's! But don't tell mamma. Promise me—promise me," she insisted.

"Tell her what?—I don't understand."

"Oh, you do—you do!" she kept on; "and if you're going to Chantry you'll see her, you'll be with her, you may see her before I do. On my knees I ask you for a vow!"

She seemed on the point of throwing herself at my feet, but I stopped her. I kept her erect. "When shall you see your mother?"

"As soon as I can. I want to get home—I want to get home!" With this I thought she was going to cry again, but she controlled herself and only pressed me with feverish eyes.

"You have some great trouble. For Heaven's sake, tell me what it is."

"It isn't anything—it will pass. Only don't breathe it to mamma!"

"How can I breathe it if I don't know what it is?"

"You do know—you know what I mean." Then, after an instant's pause, she added: "What I did in the garden."