He put a sheet of paper before her on his writing table, and taking up a pencil she wrote quickly:
I cannot do what you wish. I would have done so if not doing it would have done you harm. But I have found, thank God, that to break our engagement would do you harm rather than good.
“And now,” observed Mr. Toogood, “I’ll just put my boots on again, and see you home.”
“Indeed, you’ll do nothing of the kind!” exclaimed Jean, and this time she really smiled. “I’m not a bit afraid. Besides, it isn’t really dark.”
She took his hand and squeezed it.
“You’ve never made anybody happier than you’ve made me today,” she said.
When Jean Bower slipped quietly back into Bonnie Doon, she amazed them all—those three kind folk who felt so unhappy and anxious about her, her uncle, her aunt, and Elsie—b
