She thrust her hand confidingly into his: "I think I wish you'd just be friends, Oliver." An impulse of remorse struck him. "I think I wish I could," he said ruefully. "Then why not?" "Oh, you don't understand--and I think you can't love me." "Yes, I do. I'm sure I do." He bent down and kissed her. She was thinking, and let the caress pass as though unnoticed. "I don't think I could manage life now without you." "Well, doesn't that mean--? Come, it just needs a little courage." "Oh, don't talk as if I were going to the dentist's!" But she gave the hand she held an affectionate squeeze; her anger had passed. "I suppose I've got to do it," she went on. "I suppose I have. It's rather an awful thing, but I'm--I'm in a corner. Because I do love you--and, yes, I'm a coward. It's such an awful plunge, and there's--oh, everything against it! Except just you, of course. Oliver, I don't think I can come away." He said nothing; he gently pressed her hand in encouragement. She looked up at him and whispered, "Must I come away--now, directly?" "Soon at all events." "I must go down to Hilsey to--to see Margaret, you know, and----" "Well, go. Make an excuse to come up from there, and I'll meet you." "As if I should dare to do it without you to help me! You must come to Hilsey too, Oliver, and we--we'll start from there." It was a fluttering faltering consent, but a consent it was; though still deferred, it was definite. It agreed not only to give him what he wanted, but to give it in the way he liked--openly, before the world. The short delay--to be spent largely in her company--weighed lightly against all this. He caught her in his arms in gratitude and passion, pouring out endearing words, beyond himself in exultation because "it was settled." Now at last she too was moved to the depths of her nature. She sat clinging to him, with his strong arms about her, very quiet, smiling, yet drawing her breath in long low pants, her dim eyes very tender and never leaving his. So she heard his half-whispered protestations and encouragement, smiling at them, just now and then murmuring a faint "Yes." Her fears were silenced, her scruples scattered to the winds while she sat thus.