"You've got to promise NEVER to tell him!" the girl cried,
passionately.

"Well, we'll see. You just come back in your own room, and we'll--"

"No! I WON'T 'talk it over'! Stop pulling me! Let me ALONE!" And
Edith, flinging herself violently upon Bibbs's door, jerked it open,
swung round it into the room, slammed the door behind her, and threw
herself, face down, upon the bed in such a riot of emotion that she
had no perception of Bibbs's presence in the room. Gasping and
sobbing in a passion of tears, she beat the coverlet and pillows
with her clenched fists. "Sneak!" she babbled aloud. "Sneak!
Snake-in-the-grass! Cat!"

Bibbs saw that she did not know he was there, and he went softly
toward the door, hoping to get away before she became aware of him;
but some sound of his movement reached her, and she sat up, startled,
facing him.

"Bibbs! I thought I saw you go out awhile ago."

"Yes. I came back, though. I'm sorry--"

"Did you hear me quarreling with Sibyl?"

"Only what you said in the hall. You lie down again, Edith. I'm
going out."

"No; don't go." She applied a handkerchief to her eyes, emitted a
sob, and repeated her request. "Don't go. I don't mind you; you're