“Oh, Heaven knows,” said Steerforth. “Anything you like—or nothing! I told you she took everything, herself included, to a grindstone, and sharpened it. She is an edge-tool, and requires great care in dealing with. She is always dangerous. Good-night!”

“Good-night!” said I, “my dear Steerforth! I shall be gone before you wake in the morning. Good-night!”

He was unwilling to let me go; and stood, holding me out, with a hand on each of my shoulders, as he had done in my own room.

“Daisy,” he said, with a smile—“for though that’s not the name your godfathers and godmothers gave you, it’s the name I like best to call you by—and I wish, I wish, I wish, you could give it to me!”

“Why, so I can, if I choose,” said I.

“Daisy, if anything should ever separate us, you must think of me at my best, old boy. Come! Let us make that bargain. Think of me at my best, if circumstances should ever part us!”

“You have no best to me, Steerforth,” said I, “and no worst. You are always equally loved, and cherished in my heart.”

So much compunction for having ever wronged him, even by a shapeless thought, did I feel within me, that the confession of having done so was rising to my lips. But for the reluctance I had, to betray the confidence of Agnes, but for my uncertainty how to approach the subject with no risk of doing so, it would have reached them before he said, “God bless you, Daisy, and good-night!” In my doubt, it did not reach them; and we shook hands, and we parted.

I was up with the dull dawn, and, having dressed as quietly as I could, looked into his room. He was fast asleep; lying, easily, with his head upon his arm, as I had often seen him lie at school.

The time came in its season, and that was very soon, when I almost wondered that nothing troubled his repose, as I looked at him. But he slept—let me think of him so again—as I had often seen him sleep at school; and thus, in this silent hour, I left him.

—Never more, oh God forgive you, Steerforth! to touch that passive hand in love and friendship. Never, never, more!