"
The young woman wondered at his manner. He was so hurried, and appeared
so nervous and unlike himself.
"But, Patches, I--"
"You must!" he interrupted with a quick look toward the Dean, who was
approaching them. "I have something to tell you--something that I must
tell you to-night."
He turned to speak to the Dean, and Kitty presently left them. An hour
later, when the night had come, she found him waiting as he had said.
"Listen, Kitty!" he began abruptly, and she thought from his manner and
the tone of his voice that he was in a state of nervous fear. "I must
go; I dare not stay here another day; I am going to-night."
"Why, Patches," she said, forcing herself to speak quietly in order to
calm him. "What is the matter?"
"Matter?" he returned hurriedly. "You know what they tried to do to me
this morning."
Kitty was shocked. It was true that she did not--could not--care for
this man as she loved Phil, but she had thought him her dearest friend,
and she respected and admired him. It was not good to find him now like
this--shaken and afraid. She could not understand. For the moment her
own trouble was put aside by her honest concern for him.
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