us impulse he flung his own away. "Oh, come, my dear!" he
said, and stooping took her into his arms. "I'm sorry. There!"

She clung to him then, clung closely, still battling to check the tears
that she knew he disliked.

He kissed her forehead and patted her shoulder with a queer compunction
that had never troubled him before in his dealings with her.

"There!" he said. "There! That's all right, isn't it? We shall have Miss
Moore in directly. Where's your handkerchief?"

She found it and dried her eyes with her head against his shoulder. Then
she lifted a still quivering face to his. "Edward,--I'm--just as sorry
as you are," she said, with a catch in her voice.

He kissed her again, wondering a little at his own softened feelings.
"All right, my girl. Let's forget it!" he said. "You have a good lunch
and you'll feel better! What are they giving you? Champagne?"

"Oh no, of course not!"

"Well, why not? It's the very thing you want. Just the occasion.
What? You sit still and I'll go and see about it!" He put her down
among her cushions, but she clung to him still. "No, don't go for a
minute!" she said, with a shaky smile. "It's so good to have
you--kind to me for once."

"Good gracious!" he said, but half in jest. "Am I such a brute as
all that?"

She pushed back her sleeve and mutely showed him the marks upon her arm.

He looked, and his brows drew together. "My doing?"

She nodded. "Last night--when--when I said--something you didn't
like--about Mr. Green."

He scowled a moment longer, then abruptly stooped, took the white arm
between his hands and kissed it. "I'll get a stick and beat you the next
time," he said. "You remember that--and be decent to Green, see?"

The kiss belied the words, covering also a certain embarrassment which
Vera was not slow to perceive. Because of it she found strength to
abstain from further argument. He had undoubtedly conceded a good deal.

"I'll be decent to anyone," she said, "so long as you are decent to me."

"Hear, hear!" said the squire. "Now dry your eyes and be sensible! Miss
Moore will go for me like mad if she finds you crying again. If we don't
pull together we shall have that girl running the whole show before we
are much older, and neither of us will ever dare even to contradict the
other in her presence again. We shouldn't like that, should we?"

She laughed a little in spite of her wan countenance. "Oh, no, Edward. We
mustn't risk that." Then, with a touc