In Which Are Sealed Orders

She stood before me for just a moment undecided. The twilight was
coming and the room was dim.

"Auntie will miss me," said she, "after a time."

"I have missed you all the time," was my reply.

"But you sent for me?"

"Of course I did. Doesn't this look as though I had?"

"I don't quite understand----"

"Shall I call Jimmy to explain? He called you a heartless jade----"

"The little imp! How dare he!"

"--As in fact all of our brotherhood has come to call you: 'The
heartless jade.'"

"I made fudges for him! And the little wretch told me I wasn't playing
the game! What did he mean? Oh, Harry, I wouldn't have come if I
hadn't wanted to play the game fairly. I'm sorry for what I said." She
spoke now suddenly, impulsively.

"What was it you said?"

"When I said--when I called you--a coward. I didn't mean it."

"You said it."

"But not the way you thought. I only meant, you took an unfair
advantage of a girl, running off with her, this way, and giving her no
chance to--to get away. But now you do give me a chance--you meant to,
all along--and in every way, as I've just done telling auntie, you've
been perfectly fine, perfectly splendid, perfectly bully, too! It has
been a hard place for a man, too, but--Harry, dear boy, I'll have to
say it, you've been some considerable gentleman through it all! There
now!" And she stood, aloof, agitated, very likely flushed, though I
could not tell in the dark.