House, I turned about for home, hoping, yet
fearing, that he would not go back with me. But he did."

"Yes, you were sure to be disappointed in that respect," I answered. And
she continued hastily:--

"Yes, he walked all the way with me. Before reaching Sundridge stile, I
asked him to leave me. That was another mistake, for it gave to our
meeting a clandestine appearance. He said my word was law to him, and
that he would obey, though to do so, that is, to leave me, was pain, you
understand."

"Yes, I can understand that he did not want to leave you," I answered.
But I saw that she had not finished, so I remained silent, and in a
moment she continued:--

"He had been so respectful to me throughout that I thought him a modest,
well-behaved gentleman, and--"

I laughed, interrupting her to explain: "All art, Frances, all art.
You'll find much of that manufactured modesty at court. It is the trump
card in the game of love and is but a cloak for brazenness."

"Yes, I so found it," she answered, drooping her head, "for when he was
about to leave me at a secluded spot, he took my hand and would have
kissed me without so much as 'By your leave,' had I not caught his intent
before it was too late. I drew away, inclined to be angry, and said,
'Sir, one may overrun one's course by going too fast.'"

"That truism, under like circumstances at court, would have made you
famous," I said, pleased alike with her naivete and her wisdom.

"I tried, with fair success, to appear offended," she continued, blushing
deeply, "but the awful truth certainly is that I was not. I suppose it is
true that women like boldness and do not find wickedness in men as
distasteful as mothers say it is."

"On the contrary," I remarked, growing more and more delighted with her
wisdom, innocence, and candor.

"Yes," she continued, blushing exquisitely, "even since you have told me
how wicked he is, I am not sure that I like him less, though I fear him
and shall avoid him as I should a pestilence."

"Ah, but will you, can you, Frances?" I asked.

"Indeed, yes, brother Ned, and if you doubt me, you don't know me," she
returned.

"But do you know yourself?" I asked.

"Yes, now I do, thanks to your bravery," she answered.

"But you saw him many times after his first bold attempt," I suggested.

"Oh, it was easily forgiven," she returned, naively. "Yes, I have met him
almost every day since then. The days I did not see him seemed to be
blanks in