"Dick went because he wanted to go," Andrew interrupted. "He never shirked a risk, and least of all when he could help his friends."
"But if I had loved Dick in the way you seem to think I loved him--perhaps I would not have been brave enough to let him go--I can't be sure."
Elsie looked down at the book which lay in her lap. Her face was flooded with color, but a smile played about her lips.
"I would never have married Dick," she said, in a voice so low that Andrew had to lean toward her to catch her words.
"There was some one else?" he asked tensely.
She looked up at him then, and he gasped at the deepening glow in her eyes.
"What a stupid thing you are, Andrew! You ought to--"
His voice was a mingling of incredulity and joy; and she answered his unspoken question with a shy smile.
Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the original edition have been corrected.
In Chapter II, a missing quotation mark was added before "Attendez, mais attendez".
In Chapter III, "expensive yatching cap" was changed to "expensive yachting cap", and "the Isle of Man, rose" was changed to "the Isle of Man rose".
In Chapter VII, "is if the man had meant to jump across" was changed to "as if the man had meant to jump across".
In Chapter XVI, "single-cyclinder engine" was changed to "single-cylinder engine".
In Chapter XXVI, "his heavy boots sanks" was changed to "his heavy boots sank".
End of Project Gutenberg's Johnstone of the Border, by Harold Bindloss