all it--one
can't look away when you look at one. Of course you know it, and you
ought not to do it. It isn't nice."

"I didn't know there was anything peculiar about my eyes," said Brook.
"Indeed I didn't! Nobody ever told me so, I'm sure. By Jove!" he
exclaimed, "I believe it's that! I've probably done it before--and
that's why you--" he stopped.

"Please don't think me so silly," answered Clare, recovering her
composure. "It's nothing of the sort. As for that--that way you have of
looking--I dare say I'm nervous since my illness. Besides--" she
hesitated, and then smiled. "Besides, do you know? If you had looked at
me a moment longer I should have told you the whole thing, and then we
should both have been sorry."

"I should not, I'm sure," said Brook, with conviction. "But I don't
understand about my looking at you. I never tried to mesmerise any
one--"

"There is no such thing as mesmerism. It's all hypnotism, you know."

"I don't know what they call it. You know what I mean. But I'm sure it's
your imagination."

"Oh yes, I dare say," answered the young girl with affected
carelessness. "It's merely because I'm nervous."

"Well, so far as I'm concerned, it's quite unconscious. I don't know--I
suppose I wanted to see in your eyes what you were thinking about.
Besides, when one likes a person, one doesn't think it so dreadfully
rude to look at them--at him--I mean, at you--when one is in earnest
about something--does one?"

"I don't know," said Clare. "But please don't do it to me. It makes me
feel awfully uncomfortable somehow. You won't, will you?" she asked,
with a sort of appeal. "You would make me tell you everything--and then
I should hate myself."

"But I shouldn't hate you."

"Oh yes, you would! You would hate me for knowing."

"By Jove! It's too bad!" cried Brook. "But as for that," he added
humbly, "nothing would make me hate you."

"Nothing? You don't know!"

"Yes, I do! You couldn't make me change my mind about you. I've grown
to--to like you a great deal too much for that in this short time--a
great deal more than is good for me, I believe," he added, with a sort
of rough impulsiveness. "Not that I'm at all surprised, you know," he
continued with an attempt at a laugh. "One can't see a person like you,
most of the day, for ten days or a fortnight, without--well, you know,
admiring you most tremendously--can one? I dare say you think that might
be put into better English. But it's true al