Promise me, dear, that you will never deceive me again." Lillie promised with ready fervor.

"O John!" she said, "I never should have done so wrong if I had only come under your influence earlier.
The fact is, I have been under the worst influences all my life.

I never had anybody like you to guide me." John may of course be excused for feeling that his flattering little penitent was more to him than ever; and as to Lillie, she gave a sigh of relief.

_That_ was over, "anyway;" and she had him not only safe, but more completely hers than before.
A generous man is entirely unnerved by a frank confession.

If Lillie had said one word in defence, if she had raised the slightest shadow of an argument, John would have roused up all his moral principle to oppose her; but this poor little white water-sprite, dissolving in a rain of penitent tears, quite washed away all his anger and all his heroism.
The next morning, Lillie, all fresh in a ravishing toilet, with field-daisies in her hair, was in a condition to laugh gently at John for his emotion of yesterday.