rl, laughing.

"And yet you don't like me. This is like twenty questions. You must have
some very particular reason for it," he added thoughtfully. "I suppose I
must have done some awful thing without knowing it. I wish you would
tell me. Won't you, please? Then I'll go away."

"No," Clare answered. "I won't tell you. But I have a reason. I'm not
capricious. I don't take violent dislikes to people for nothing. Let it
alone. We can talk very pleasantly about other things. Since you are
good enough to like me, it might be amusing to tell me why. If you have
any good reason, you know, you won't stop liking me just because I don't
like you, will you?"

She glanced sideways at him as she spoke, and he was watching her and
trying to understand her, for the revelation of her dislike had come
upon him very suddenly. She was on the right as they walked, and he saw
her against the light sky, above the line of the low parapet. Perhaps
the light behind her dazzled him; at all events, he had a strange
impression for a moment. She seemed to have the better of him, and to be
stronger and more determined than he. She seemed taller than she was,
too, for she was on the higher part of the road, in the middle of it.
For an instant he felt precisely what she so often felt with him, that
she had power over him. But he did not resent the sensation as she did,
though it was quite as new to him.

Nevertheless, he did not answer her, for she had spoken only half in
earnest, and he himself was not just then inclined to joke for the mere
sake of joking. He looked down at the road under his feet, and he knew
all at once that Clare attracted him much more than he had imagined. The
sidelong glance she had bestowed upon him had fascination in it. There
was an odd charm about her girlish contrariety and in her frank avowal
that she did not like him. Her dislike roused him. He did not choose to
be disliked by her, especially for some absurd trifle in his behaviour,
which he had not even noticed when he had made the mistake, whatever it
might be.

He walked along in silence, and he was aware of her light tread and the
soft sound of her serge skirt as she moved. He wished her to like him,
and wished that he knew what to do to change her mind. But that would
not be easy, since he did not know the cause of her dislike. Presently
she spoke again, and more gravely.

"I should not have said that. I'm sorry. But of course you knew that I
wasn't in earne