'This is the letter which you must post to-day.

I can trust it to you.' He gave her the letter, which she took with a beating heart and a sense of shame and regret as she remembered her pledge to Mr.Frank Tracy.

She had promised to take him any letter which Mr.Arthur might intrust to her care, and if she took this one from Arthur she must keep her word.
'Oh, I can't do it--I can't! It would be mean to Mr.Arthur,' she thought; and returning him the letter, she said: 'Please post it yourself; then you will be sure, and I might lose it, or forget.

I am careless sometimes.

Don't ask me to take it.' She was pleading with her might; but Arthur paid no heed, and only laughed at her fears.
'I know you will not forget, and I'd rather trust you than Charles.
Surely, you will not refuse to do so small a favor for me ?' 'No,' she said, at last, as she put the letter in her pocket, with the thought that, after all, there might be no harm in showing it to Mr.
Frank, who, of course, merely wished to see it, and would not think of keeping it.
But she did not know Frank Tracy or guess how great was his anxiety lest any message should ever reach a friend of Gretchen, if friend there were living.