Helen answered quickly.  “But that is exactly what you must not do.”

The man was bewildered.  “Why, I thought—­what in the world do you mean?”

She laughed happily as she said, “Stupid Larry, don’t you understand?  You must make Kitty send you about your business.  You must save her self-respect.  Can’t you see how ashamed and humiliated she would be if she imagined for a moment that you did not love her?  Think what she would suffer if she knew that you had merely tried to buy her with your wealth and the things you possess!”

She disregarded his protest.

“That’s exactly what your proposal meant, Larry.  A girl like Kitty, if she knew the truth of what she had done, might even fancy herself unworthy to accept her happiness now that it has come.  You must make her dismiss you, and all that you could give her.  You must make her proud and happy to give herself to the man she loves.”

“But—­what can I do?” he asked in desperation.

“I don’t know, Larry.  But you must manage somehow—­for Kitty’s sake you must.”

“If only the Dean had not interrupted the proceedings this morning, how it would have simplified everything!” he mused, and she saw that as always he was laughing at himself.

“Don’t, Larry; please don’t,” she cried earnestly.

He looked at her curiously.  “Would you have me lie to her, Helen—­deliberately lie?”

She answered quietly.  “I don’t think that I would raise that question, if I were you, Larry—­considering all the circumstances.”

On his way back to the Cross-Triangle, Patches walked as a man who, having determined upon a difficult and distasteful task, is of a mind to undertake it without delay.

After supper that evening he managed to speak to Kitty when no one was near.

“I must see you alone for a few minutes to-night,” he whispered hurriedly.  “As soon as possible.  I will be under the trees near the bank of the wash.  Come to me as soon as it is dark, and you can slip away.”

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.