and longed to
ease her burdened mind by an instant confession. If Knight had ever been
imprudent himself, he might, she hoped, forgive all.

'I wanted to ask you,' she went on, 'if--you had ever been engaged
before.' She added tremulously, 'I hope you have--I mean, I don't mind
at all if you have.'

'No, I never was,' Knight instantly and heartily replied. 'Elfride'--and
there was a certain happy pride in his tone--'I am twelve years older
than you, and I have been about the world, and, in a way, into society,
and you have not. And yet I am not so unfit for you as strict-thinking
people might imagine, who would assume the difference in age to signify
most surely an equal addition to my practice in love-making.'

Elfride shivered.

'You are cold--is the wind too much for you?'

'No,' she said gloomily. The belief which had been her sheet-anchor in
hoping for forgiveness had proved false. This account of the exceptional
nature of his experience, a matter which would have set her rejoicing
two years ago, chilled her now like a frost.

'You don't mind my asking you?' she continued.

'Oh no--not at all.'

'And have you never kissed many ladies?' she whispered, hoping he would
say a hundred at the least.

The time, the circumstances, and the scene were such as to draw
confidences from the most reserved. 'Elfride,' whispered Knight in
reply, 'it is strange you should have asked that question. But I'll
answer it, though I have never told such a thing before. I have been
rather absurd in my avoidance of women. I have never given a woman a
kiss in my life, except yourself and my mother.' The man of two and
thirty with the experienced mind warmed all over with a boy's ingenuous
shame as he made the confession.

'What, not one?' she faltered.

'No; not one.'

'How very strange!'

'Yes, the reverse experience may be commoner. And yet, to those who have
observed their own sex, as I have, my case is not remarkable. Men about
town are women's favourites--that's the postulate--and superficial
people don't think far enough to see that there may be reserved, lonely
exceptions.'

'Are you proud of it, Harry?'

'No, indeed. Of late years I have wished I had gone my ways and trod out
my measure like lighter-hearted men. I have thought of how many happy
experiences I may have lost through never going to woo.'

'Then why did you hold aloof?'

'I cannot say. I don't think it was my nature to: circumstance hindered
me, p