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"Forbidden! " I cried, taking her proffered hand and keeping possession of it. "Why is our friendship forbidden? I thought you had accepted my friendship! I do not know the truth about yourself -- nor do I wish to know. I only know that I desire to serve you in every way a man is capable. I only ask you to allow me to love you, to let me think of you as my own."
"Ah, no! " she said, withdrawing her hand. "It is not just that I should allow you to thus go headlong into ruin. My duty is to warn you of the dire consequences of this reckless devotion to myself," she added with that sweet touch of her woman's nature that had all along held me charmed. "Hear me, Mr Kennedy, I beseech of you. Pause and reflect upon the consequences. You say you are my friend. That may be so, but when I tell you in reply that no friendship is permissible between us, will it not be best if we part at once --