ch warmer.

'I don't think it would be quite the usual or proper course,' she said,
suddenly turning and resuming her operation of plashing in the miniature
cataract.

The stillness of things was disturbed by a bird coming to the streamlet
to drink. After watching him dip his bill, sprinkle himself, and fly
into a tree, Knight replied, with the courteous brusqueness she so much
liked to hear--

'Elfride, now you may as well be fair. You would mind my doing it but
little, I think; so give me leave, do.'

'I will be fair, then,' she said confidingly, and looking him full in
the face. It was a particular pleasure to her to be able to do a little
honesty without fear. 'I should not mind your doing so--I should like
such an attention. My thought was, would it be right to let you?'

'Then I will!' he rejoined, with that singular earnestness about a small
matter--in the eyes of a ladies' man but a momentary peg for flirtation
or jest--which is only found in deep natures who have been wholly unused
to toying with womankind, and which, from its unwontedness, is in itself
a tribute the most precious that can be rendered, and homage the most
exquisite to be received.

'And you shall,' she whispered, without reserve, and no longer mistress
of the ceremonies. And then Elfride inclined herself towards him, thrust
back her hair, and poised her head sideways. In doing this her arm and
shoulder necessarily rested against his breast.

At the touch, the sensation of both seemed to be concentrated at the
point of contact. All the time he was performing the delicate manoeuvre
Knight trembled like a young surgeon in his first operation.

'Now the other,' said Knight in a whisper.

'No, no.'

'Why not?'

'I don't know exactly.'

'You must know.'

'Your touch agitates me so. Let us go home.'

'Don't say that, Elfride. What is it, after all? A mere nothing. Now
turn round, dearest.'

She was powerless to disobey, and turned forthwith; and then, without
any defined intention in either's mind, his face and hers drew closer
together; and he supported her there, and kissed her.

Knight was at once the most ardent and the coolest man alive. When his
emotions slumbered he appeared almost phlegmatic; when they were moved
he was no less than passionate. And now, without having quite intended
an early marriage, he put the question plainly. It came with all
the ardour which was the accumulation of long years behind a natural
reserve