that a good many of your sex, both small and great, regard me as a very
pretty fellow. In fact, I'm pestered with the women. I assure you I
really am, my dear. And so you won't give me a kiss of your own free
will? Why, I could take it if I liked; but I'm not sure that I want to
take it till you come and offer it to me of your own free will."

"That I shall never do," I said.

"I'm not so sure of that," he replied. "There aren't many ladies in this
county wouldn't give me a kiss if I wanted it, much less a little
dairymaid like you."

I thought at the time that it was his egregious vanity and conceit, but
in this I was wrong, as events afterwards proved. Indeed, it was a very
strange thing how women, both gentle and simple, were in many cases
attracted by the coarse good looks and insolent, swaggering way of
Richard Dawson--an inconceivable thing to me in the case of a lady,
although more easily understood in the case of a poor peasant girl like
Nora Brady.

His mood had apparently changed, and I was less afraid of him, although
my detestation of him had been deepened by his conduct to me.

He still sat on the stile so that I could not pass him; but all the
anger had gone out of his face, although the blood still trickled a
little from the back of his hand where Dido had planted her teeth.

"Will you let me pass, please?" said I.

"Presently, my dear." How I hated him for his easy insolence! "I want to
hear first what it is you dislike in me."

"Everything," I answered.

"Why," he said mockingly, "it is a thing of spirit, and it will be the
more pleasure to tame it. I am tired of birds that come fluttering into
my hands and cling to me when I no longer desire them. Upon my word, I
like you the better for it. Come, I'm sorry I frightened you. I can say
no more than that; it is the fault of your sex, which is so
complaisant."

He put his hand into his pocket and drew out a handful of coins.

"Here's a sovereign," he said, "to buy a ribbon. It can't make you
prettier, but may it make you kinder when next we meet!"

He flung the coin as though he expected me to catch it, but, of course,
I made no effort to do so and it fell on the ground and rolled away into
a heap of dead leaves. No matter what happened I could not have kept
myself from kicking at it contemptuously with my foot where it lay.

"Not enough, eh?" he asked, his eyebrows raised in amusement. "Would
five do?"

I stared at him and the colour fl