I
assure you, I regret extremely that I have been obliged to talk in this
way to a stranger, and nothing could have induced me to do it but the
fear that your conjectures and surmises might make trouble. I ask as a
right that you will say no more of the matter to any one."
"Would you mind telling me the lady's name?" she asked.
"Of course I shall do no such thing," I answered, rising from my seat,
with my face flushing with indignation.
"This is odd flirting, isn't it?" said she, still retaining her
seat,--"a quarrel at the very outset. I shall not be prevented from
informing you why you ought to tell me the name of the lady. You see
that if you don't give me her name my ungovernable curiosity will set me
to working the matter out for myself, and it is quite as likely as not
that I shall go to the House of Martha, and ask questions, and pry, and
watch, and make no end of trouble. If a blooming bride is to be picked
from that flock of ash-colored gruel-mixers, I want to know who it is to
be. I used to be acquainted with a good many of them, but I haven't
visited the House for some time."
I had never known any one assume toward me a position so unjustifiable
and so unseemly as that in which this lady had deliberately placed
herself.
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