Why couldn't you see this
from my manner and save both yourself and me from this scene? I'll gladly
be your loving sister, but you must not speak to me in this way again."
"You refuse me then," he said, throwing back his head haughtily.
"Refuse you? No. I simply tell you that I won't listen to such words from
any one. Why can't you be sensible and understand me? I no more wish to
talk about such things than do Alf and Johnnie."
"I do understand you," he exclaimed, passionately, "and better perhaps
than you understand yourself. You are not a child. You are a woman, but
you seem to lack a woman's heart, as far as I am concerned;" and with a
gesture that was very tragic and despairing he strode away.
She was deeply troubled and incensed also, and she returned to the house
with drooping head and fast-falling tears.
"Why, Amy, what is the matter?" Looking up, she saw Webb coming down the
piazza steps. Yielding to her impulse, she sprang forward and took his
arm, as she said:
"Webb, you have always acted toward me like a brother. Tell me true: am I
cold? am I heartless? is it unnatural in me that I do not wish to hear
such words as Burt would speak to-night? All I ask is that he will let me
stay a happy young girl till I am ready for something else. This is no
way for a flower to bloom"--she snatched the rose from her hair, and
pushed open the red petals--"and yet Burt expects me to respond at once
to feelings that I do not even understand.
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