t anywhere. But I do often regret having ever written it,
as well as others of the sort. I have grown older since, and I find such
a tone of writing is calculated to do harm in the world. Every literary
Jack becomes a gentleman if he can only pen a few indifferent satires
upon womankind: women themselves, too, have taken to the trick; and so,
upon the whole, I begin to be rather ashamed of my companions.'

'Ah, Henry, you have fallen in love since and it makes a difference,'
said Mrs. Swancourt with a faint tone of banter.

'That's true; but that is not my reason.'

'Having found that, in a case of your own experience, a so-called goose
was a swan, it seems absurd to deny such a possibility in other men's
experiences.'

'You can hit palpably, cousin Charlotte,' said Knight. 'You are like the
boy who puts a stone inside his snowball, and I shall play with you no
longer. Excuse me--I am going for my evening stroll.'

Though Knight had spoken jestingly, this incident and conversation had
caused him a sudden depression. Coming, rather singularly, just after
his discovery that Elfride had known what it was to love warmly before
she had known him, his mind dwelt upon the subject, and the familiar
pipe he smoked, whilst pacing up and down the shrubbery-path, failed
to be a solace. He thought again of those idle words--hitherto quite
forgotten--about the first kiss of a girl, and the theory seemed more
than reasonable. Of course their sting now lay in their bearing on
Elfride.

Elfride, under Knight's kiss, had certainly been a very different woman
from herself under Stephen's. Whether for good or for ill, she had
marvellously well learnt a betrothed lady's part; and the fascinating
finish of her deportment in this second campaign did probably arise from
her unreserved encouragement of Stephen. Knight, with all the rapidity
of jealous sensitiveness, pounced upon some words she had inadvertently
let fall about an earring, which he had only partially understood at the
time. It was during that 'initial kiss' by the little waterfall:

'We must be careful. I lost the other by doing this!'

A flush which had in it as much of wounded pride as of sorrow, passed
over Knight as he thought of what he had so frequently said to her
in his simplicity. 'I always meant to be the first comer in a woman's
heart, fresh lips or none for me.' How childishly blind he must have
seemed to this mere girl! How she must have laughed at him inward