And she thinks me _her friend_ at least.

I thought that there might be some little matters yet unsettled between you two, and she suggested that maybe there might be something you would like to say, and that if you would say it to me, it would be all the same as if it were said to her.

She considers that in the relation I bear to her and the family, a message delivered to me is the same in effect as if given to her.

I told her I did not think you would, as a gentleman, wish to hold her to any promises that might be irksome to her now." These words were spoken with a coolness and maliciousness of good-nature quite devilish, and August's fist involuntarily doubled itself to strike him, if only to make him cease smiling in that villainous rectangular way.

But he checked himself.
"You are a puppy.