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"Say it," she repeated, laughing uncertainly back into his s eyes of a boy

"Say what?"

"That you are contented"

"I can't"

"Mr Siward, it is unkind, it is shameless--"

"I know it; I am that sort"

"Then I a her left hand in his so that the jewel on the third finger caught the light

"I see it"

"And yet--"

"And yet"

"That," she observed with composure, "is sheer obstinacy … Isn't it?"

"It is what I said it was: a hopeful discontent"

"How can it be?" i, unaccusto her--yet she made no motion to withdraw her hands "How can you really care for me? Do you actually believe that--devotion--comes like that?"

"Exactly like that"

"So suddenly? It is impossible!" with a twist of her pretty shoulders

"How did it corew scarlet and her eyes grew dark, and her hands contracted in his--tightened, twisted fingers entangled, until, with a little sob, she swayed toward hiht her An instant, a minute--more, perhaps, she did not know--she half lay in his arainst his Lassitude, faint consciousness, then tiny shock on shock ca revulsion; and her voice caely to her, a colourless, monotonous voice

He had freed her; she remembered that somebody had asked him to--perhaps herself That ell; she needed to breathe, to suth and common-sense, find out what had been done, what reasonless ht of the silver-ste in shameful witness on every hand

Suddenly the hot humiliation of it overwhel, al, as wave on wave of incredulous shame seemed to sweep her from knee to brow That phase passed after a while; out of it she eed, flushed, outwardly composed, into another phase, in full self-possession once more, able to understand what had happened without the disproportion of eeration After all, she had only been kissed Besides she was a novice, which probably accounted, in a measure, for the unreasonable emotion coincident with a caress to which she was unaccusto coolly enough to surprise herself: "I never supposed I was capable of that It appears that I a to say for myself … except that I feel fearfully hu now … I do not blame you, truly I do not It was conte this--" she stretched out her slender left hand, not looking at him; "it was conte all her courage to face him