d of herself were
true, he need only speak a word and she would be as good as thrown
out. Even Abigail Gosnold couldn't protect her, insist on people
inviting a shop-girl to their houses. And if such drudgery were really
what she had come up from, you might be sure she'd break her
heart rather than forfeit all this that she had gained.

And then again she had been all for him from the very first. She had
admitted as much out of her own mouth. Her own mouth, for that matter,
had taken his kisses--and hungrily, or he was no judge of kissing.
Only the surprise of it, his own dumb unreadiness, his unwonted lack
of ingenuity and diplomatics had almost lost her to him. Not quite,
however; it was not yet too late; and though the risk was great, the
penalty heavy if he were discovered pursuing an affair under this
roof, the game was well worth the candle.

Thus Mr. Lyttleton to his conscience; and thus it happened that, when
she turned to go, he stepped quickly to her side and said quietly:
"Oh, please, my dear--one minute."

The unexpected humility of his tone, mixed with the impudence of that
term of endearment, so struck her that she hesitated despite the
counsel of a sound intuition.

"We mustn't part this way--misunderstanding one another," he insisted,
ignoring the hostility in her attitude and modulating his voice to a
tone whose potency often had been proved. "Three words can set me
right with you, if you'll only listen--"

She said frostily: "Well?"

"Three words." He drew still nearer. "I've said them once
to-night. Will you hear them again? No--please listen! I meant what I
said, but I was carried out of myself--clumsy--bungled my meaning. You
misunderstood, misconstrued, and before I could correct you I'd lost
my temper. You said cruel things--just enough, no doubt, from your
point of view--and you put words into my mouth, read thoughts into my
mind that never were there. And I let you do me that injustice because
I'm hot-tempered. And then, I'm not altogether a free agent; I'm not
my own master, quite; and that's difficult to explain. If I could make
you understand--"

Grown a little calmer, she couldn't deny there was something
reasonable in his argument. She really had given him little chance;
impulse and instinct had worked upon her, causing her to jump at
conclusions which, however well founded in fact, were without excuse
in act. If he had kissed her, it wasn't without provocation, nor
against her wi