aid, turning away my head.

"Ah, I frightened you that day in the wood, my bird," he said, "and I
suffer for it now. What a brute I was! But you can make me different if
you will, Bawn. If you will but love me, my beauty, you can do what you
will with me--make a decent fellow of me. I am not such a bad fellow at
heart. Come, give me a kiss of your own free will. You would not when I
asked you before, but you will now because I am your affianced husband.
Come, kiss me, Bawn."

I kissed him, shrinking all the time, and with a dreary wonder as to
whether it was always going to be like this, and if so, how I was to
endure it.

"Your kiss is as cold as a frog," he said. "But never mind, I wouldn't
give a fig for a woman who was too easily won. The time will come when
you will beg me for kisses. Till then, why, I shall do the love-making
myself."

But presently, seeing I could not endure it, he let me go. It never
seemed to occur to him that my aversion could be for him. He took my
shrinking as maiden modesty, and vowed that he delighted in it, that I
should have been far less desirable if I had not been so coy, and that
he would be happier breaking down my barriers than if there had been
none to break.

Finally he took a little case from his pocket, and out of it he produced
a ring, the beauty of which would have delighted any happy girl. It was
set with an emerald of great size and beauty, of a heart-shape,
surrounded by diamonds, and at the top a true-lovers' knot in diamonds.
He put it on my finger, saying that he had carried it about with him for
a month or more, and that he had paid a pretty price for it. It was an
antique ring and the workmanship very beautiful, not like those made
nowadays.

It occurred to me that he had been very sure of me. But I said nothing
while he put on the ring.

"And how soon will you marry me, Bawn?" he asked. "There is nothing I
will not give you when we are married. I am going to take you away and
show you the beautiful world. There will be nothing you can desire that
will not be yours. Oh, you shall see what a lover I will make! Bawn,
Bawn, you will adore me."

"It is too soon to talk of wedding-days," I said.

"Not too soon for me," he answered. "I can hardly bear to wait. I would
marry you this instant if I could. Will it be in a month's time, Bawn?"

"I could never be ready," I said.

"Not in a month's time! And how do you suppose I am going to endure even
that! I shall