“To live in Italy, and to enjoy myself in my own way.”

Jo wanted very much to ask what his own way was; but his black brows looked rather threatening as he knit them; so she changed the subject by saying, as her foot kept time, “That’s a splendid polka! Why don’t you go and try it?”

“If you will come too,” he answered, with a gallant little bow.

“I can’t; for I told Meg I wouldn’t, because⁠—” There Jo stopped, and looked undecided whether to tell or to laugh.

“Because what?” asked Laurie curiously.

“You won’t tell?”

“Never!”