Wild words leaped to my lips, only to be choked back unspoken, although I scarcely knew what strength combined to win the swift struggle.

Impulse, made with sudden revelation of love, swept me perilously near to outburst, yet reason held sufficiently firm to restrain; the flood of passion.

I knew I must refrain; I read it in the calm depths of those eyes fronting me in frank friendship.

A word, a single, mad, ill-considered word, would sever the bond between us as though cleft by a sword.

With any other I might have dared all, but not with her.