Seriously"-- her voice took on a graver note--"I feel I can't ever repay you .-- you've come to my help so often." "There is a way," he said, very low, and then fell silent.
"Tell me," she urged him, smilingly.

"I like to pay my debts." He made no answer, and Diana, suddenly nervous and puzzled, continued a little breathlessly:-- "Have I--have I offended you?
I--I thought"-- her lips quivered--"we had agreed to be friends." Max was silent a moment.

Then he said slowly:-- "I can't keep that compact." Diana's heart contracted with a sudden fear.
"Can't keep it ?" she repeated dully.

She could not picture her life--no--robbed of this friendship! "No." His hands hung clenched at his sides, and he stood staring at her from beneath bent brows, his mouth set in a straight line.

It was as though he were holding himself under a rigid restraint, against which something within him battled, striving for release.
All at once his control snapped.
"I love you!.