f adoring
contrition. He caught at any gossamer thread to stifle the obvious
thought that if she loved him even ever so little he would not have to
accustom her to caresses; she would long ago have been willing to learn
all of their meanings in his arms!--and this was only the second time
during their acquaintance that she had even let him kiss her!

But of her own free will she now came and leaned her head against his
shoulder.

"Henry," she pleaded, "I am not really as I know you think I am--a
gentle and loving woman. There are all sorts of fierce sides in my
character which you have not an idea of, and I am only beginning to
guess at them myself. I do not know that I shall ever be able to make
you happy. I am sure I shall not unless you will be contented with very
little."

"The smallest tip of your finger is more precious to me than all the
world, darling!" he protested with heat. "I will be patient. I will be
anything you wish. I will not even touch you again until you give me
leave. Oh! I adore you so--Sabine, I will bear anything if only you do
not mean that you want to send me away."

The anguish and fond worship in his face wrung her heart. She started
from him and then, returning, held out her arms, while she cried with a
pitiful gasp, almost as of a sob in her throat:

"Yes--take me and kiss me--kiss me until I don't feel!--I mean until I
feel--Henry, you said you would make me forget!"

He encircled her with his arm and led her to a sofa, murmuring every vow
of passionate love; and here he sat by her and kissed her and caressed
her to his heart's content, while she remained apparently passive, but
still as white as the violets in her dress, and inwardly she could
hardly keep from screaming, the torture of it was so great. At last she
could bear no more, but disengaging herself from his arms she slipped on
to the floor, and there sat upon a low footstool, with her back to the
fire, shivering as though with icy cold.

Lord Fordyce's instincts were too fine not to realize something of the
meaning of this scene. Although not greatly learned in the ways of
women, he had kissed them often before in his life, and none had
received his caresses like that. But since she did not repulse him, he
must not despair. She perhaps was, as she said, unused to fond
dalliance, and he must be more controlled, and wait. So with an inward
sense of pain and chill in his heart, he set himself to divert her
otherwise, talkin