e
pain, which he did not even perceive he had inflicted--so strange a
mood was upon him. He loosed her hand at once, and stood up before her,
speaking vehemently.

"I meant to be kind--very kind--just in the way that I knew would most
please you. I meant to tell you that I wish you to hold yourself quite
free, both as to this day or any other days: that you have only to say
the word, and--What a fool I am making of myself!"

Muttering the last words, he turned and walked quickly to the far end
of the room, leaving Agatha to meditate. It was a new thing to see
such passion in him; and while half frightened she was interested and
touched. She would have been more so, but for a certain something in
him which roused her pride, until she could not do as she had at first
intended--follow him, and ask why he was angry. The humility of love was
not yet hers.

So she sat without moving, her eyes fixed on her hand, where the red
mark left by her lover's grasp was slowly disappearing; until a minute
after, he approached.

"Was that the mark of my fingers on your wrist? Did I hurt you, my poor
Agatha?"

"Yes, a little."

"Forgive me!" And sitting down beside her, he bent his lips to where
his rude grasp had been, kissing the little wrist over and over again,
though he did not speak.

His humility in this, the first ripple which had ever stirred their
calmest of all calm courtships, moved Agatha even more than his sudden
gust of passion. It is a curious fact, that some women--and they not of
the weaker or more foolish kind--like very much to be ruled. A strong
nature is instinctively attracted by one still stronger. Most certainly
Agatha had never so distinctly felt the cords--not exactly of love, but
of some influence akin thereto--which this young man had netted round
her, as when he began to draw them with a tight, firm hand, less that of
a submissive lover than of a dominant husband. She had never liked him
half so well as when, taking her hand once more into his determined
hold, he said--gently, indeed, but in a tone that would be answered--

"Now, tell me, what do you wish?"

"What do I wish?" echoed she, feeling as though some hard but firm
support were about to relax from her, leaving her trembling and insecure
to the world's open blasts. "I do not know--I cannot tell. Talk to me a
little; that will help me to judge."

His eye brightened, though faintly. "I will speak, but you shall decide,
for all lies in your