Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/165

Rh of a person who requires the opinion of another."

She took back the unopened envelope.

"Now," she tantalized, as she put the end of a paper-knife under the flap, "I shall do with this just as you prefer. Shall I open it or not?"

"Please don't," Preston replied humbly. "You were right," he acknowledged. "Confidence can't come from any one else—it must be only what one believes! And if you are willing to wish to keep it that, I wish it too!"

"I am willing!" the girl withdrew the blade from the flap. She took up a pen and wrote across the front of the envelope.

"Especially, Mr. Preston, since you told me Mr. Dunneston was in town with you."

"Why?"

"Because he rather dared me, as I told you, to try my ideas with you and see how I would come out. And getting knowledge this way would not be quite fair."

143