not worthy!

"Oh, Peter! Peter! Please--I'm--I can't let you say all this! I'm
_not_--what you think me! I'm a _cheat_! You'd hate me if----"

He caught her hand. "I know what you are, Nancy--you're the best,
truest, straightest-hearted little girl that ever lived!"

With an effort that hurt Nancy pulled herself together. She looked
away so that she might not see that it hurt Peter Hyde when she pulled
her hand from his close clasp.

"Peter--we must be--sensible." She hated her own words, but something
within her, told her that she must say them. "We've been jolly
comrades--here, but--I'm not cut out for--this sort of life. I'd hate
it--after a little; I'd go mad on a farm with just cows and pigs and
things around," she caught her breath; "I'm really an awfully selfish
girl, Peter, and I've set my heart on my career! I'll always put that
before anything--_anyone_ else! That wouldn't be fair--to you. You
must forget me and find someone who will help you in your work."

His face was turned from her--his silence frightened her. She tried to
make her tone light. "You've been a fine pal, Peter, you've helped me
a lot. You've taught me a great many things, too. I've always thought
that farmers and--and----"

He wheeled suddenly.

"Nancy, you haven't said you _didn't_ care for me, any!" he cried.

Nancy flushed in vexation.

"Well, I'm _trying_ to--the best way I know how! I _do_ like you--I'm
going to be as honest as I can be! I just couldn't _ever_--no matter
how much I might like the _farmer_--stand for--for a farm like
Judson's!"

To Nancy's unutterable amazement Peter Hyde commenced to laugh, very
softly, with a look in his eyes that caressed her. What an
unexplainable creature he was--anyway!

"When my play is produced," Nancy went on, airily, "I shall invite you
to come down and sit in a box and see it--and maybe, you'll bring Miss
Denny with you!" She wanted to punish him.

But Peter Hyde, the incorrigible, was looking neither crestfallen nor
disheartened. He seized both of Nancy's hands and held them very close.

"I'll come! When that play is produced you can just bet I'll be in the
stage box and it won't be Miss Denny that's with me either! You
haven't told me, Nancy--that you did not love _me_! You've just said
you didn't like--pigs and cows and hired men and Judson's in general.
Dear, I'm not going to let you answer me--now! I'm not even going to
say good-bye! You're a ti