He took it without waiting for any giving. Then immediately proceeded to comment on it, as if it had not belonged to me, or as if I had not been there. "A dainty foot it is; and reasonably shod in decently fitting boots; not six and a quarter." "You still seem not to understand that my size in gloves is six and a quarter." "I'm so dull." "You are. And something else besides." He simply ignored my hint. I hate people not to notice when I intend to sting them. It makes you feel so helpless. He went on calmly discussing my foot. "It's worth while allowing you to flesh the arrows of your malice in one's hide for the privilege of holding this between one's fingers." "Do you think so?" "I do." It was strange how excessively odd an effect his touch had on me. It made me thrill from top to toe. I could scarcely speak. When I stood, to my amazement I found that I was trembling. "Are your skates comfortable?" "They seem all right." "Molly, let us understand each other. Are you bent on skating?" "I am. Though there is not the slightest reason why you should." "The ice may be sufficiently thick in places, but it certainly is not all over, and, as you don't know where the weak points are, it will be at the risk of your life if you venture on it." "It is strong enough to bear me, though it is very possible that it may not be strong enough to bear you also. So, if you do not desire to add to the risk on which you are so insistent, you will not force on me your company." "If you go I go also." "Then don't talk so much--and come!" He had been holding my hand. I snatched it from him and was on the ice. In an instant he was at my side. I was filled with a curious excitement. Something had got into my blood, microbes perhaps, of a fever-generating kind. The various passages of arms which we had had together seemed, all at once, to have reached their climax. I was seized with a sudden frenzy of resolve to show him, once for all, that what it was my pleasure to do that I would do. I craved for motion; yearned for movement--if only as a means of relief for my pent-up feelings. Longed for a flight through the air, to rush through it, to race. Especially to race that man--or to escape from him. I did not care much which.