outwards across the blackness from the far bank--the moon, whose
rim she could now see rising, of a thick gold like a coin, above the
woods. Her heart went out to that warm light. At all events there was
one friendly inhabitant of this darkness.

Suddenly she felt his hands on her waist. She did not move, her heart
beat too furiously; but a sort of prayer fluttered up from it against
her lips. In the grip of those heavy hands was such quivering force!

His voice sounded very husky and strange: "Olive, this can't go on. I
suffer. My God! I suffer!"

A pang went through her, a sort of surprise. Suffer! She might wish him
dead, but she did not want him to suffer--God knew! And yet, gripped by
those hands, she could not say: I am sorry!

He made a sound that was almost a groan, and dropped on his knees.
Feeling herself held fast, she tried to push his forehead back from her
waist. It was fiery hot; and she heard him mutter: "Have mercy! Love me
a little!" But the clutch of his hands, never still on the thin silk of
her dress, turned her faint. She tried to writhe away, but could not;
stood still again, and at last found her voice.

"Mercy? Can I MAKE myself love? No one ever could since the world began.
Please, please get up. Let me go!"

But he was pulling her down to him so that she was forced on to her
knees on the grass, with her face close to his. A low moaning was coming
from him. It was horrible--so horrible! And he went on pleading, the
words all confused, not looking in her face. It seemed to her that it
would never end, that she would never get free of that grip, away from
that stammering, whispering voice. She stayed by instinct utterly still,
closing her eyes. Then she felt his gaze for the first time that evening
on her face, and realized that he had not dared to look until her eyes
were closed, for fear of reading what was in them. She said very gently:

"Please let me go. I think I'm going to faint."

He relaxed the grip of his arms; she sank down and stayed unmoving on
the grass. After such utter stillness that she hardly knew whether he
were there or not, she felt his hot hand on her bare shoulder. Was
it all to begin again? She shrank down lower still, and a little moan
escaped her. He let her go suddenly, and, when at last she looked up,
was gone.

She got to her feet trembling, and moved quickly from under the
yew-trees. She tried to think--tried to understand exactly what this
portended for he