"This is too much," cried Missy in a broken voice. "I can never let you send this."
"And why not, my dear?" laughed Mr. Teesdale, echoing, as he thought, her merriment; for it was to this he actually attributed the break in her voice.
"Because there isn't a word of truth in it; because I haven't a warm heart nor a kind nature, and because I'm _not_ frank in my dealings. Frank, indeed! If you knew what I really was, you wouldn't say that in a hurry!"
Mr. Teesdale could no longer suppose that the girl was in fun. Her bosom was heaving with excitement; he could see that, if he could not see her face. He said wearily:
"There you go again, Missy! I can't understand why you keep saying such silly things."
"I'm not what you think me. You understand that, don't you?"
"I hear what you say, but I don't believe a word of it."
"Then you must! You shall! I can't bear to deceive you a moment longer--I simply can't bear it when you speak and think of me like this. First of all, then, this letter's no good at all!"
In another instant that letter fluttered upon the floor in many pieces.
"You must forgive me," said Missy, "I couldn't help it; it wasn't worth the paper it was written on; and now I'm going to tell you why."
Old Teesdale, however, had never spoken, and this silenced the girl also, for the moment. But that moment meant a million. One more, and Missy would have confessed everything. She was worked up to it. She was in continual terror of an immediate exposure. Her better nature was touched and cauterised with shame for the sweet affection of which she had cheated this simple old man. She would tell him everything now and here, and the mercy that filled his heart would be extended to her because she had not waited to be unmasked by another. But she paused to measure him with her eye, or, perhaps, to take a last look at him looking kindly upon her. And in that pause the door opened, making Missy jump with fright; and when it was only Arabella who entered with the lighted kerosene lamp, Missy's eyes sped back to the old man's face in time to catch a sorrowful mute reproach that went straight to her palpitating heart. She stooped without a word to help him gather up the fragments of the torn letter.