She did not smile in return. She was standing still in the path, as though she had been stopped by a blow. "Honest? _I_ honest?" she said. The dog jumped up on her breast to go on with his romp. She pushed him down, looking straight into Neckart's amazed face. "You may have made mistakes: everybody is liable to do that," he stammered. "But as for sincerity--" She drew a long breath as if throwing off a burden: "No. I have been honest. You are not wrong about me there. I have made no mistakes." She turned and walked on quickly. As he followed her he observed for the first time how steady was her step and how close set the finely-cut jaws. His own mouth, by the way, was coarser, but more facile: it spoke when silent: the chin was cleft and sensitive. "When she once makes up her mind, the verdict of the whole world will not make her flinch," he thought with keen approval. The quality which he had that very day damned as mulish obstinacy in one of his clerks was infinitely alluring to him in this young girl. He came closer to her, watching her averted face, a passion of delight and longing gradually dulling all past resolves or reason. If she would but turn her eyes on his face again searching for signs of trouble or illness! It was actually the first time in Neckart's life that a woman had taken any care of him. His mother had been a burden and charge on him since his boyhood. That single kindly glance had opened to him unknown possibilities of tenderness, of the touch of a woman's fingers, and all that came to other men through them. But she walked on without speaking, her head sunk on her breast. She seemed to have forgotten that he was in the world. At a bend in the road they met the captain. He was heated and agitated, and tried to hide it by tremendous hilarity. He welcomed Neckart boisterously, shaking hands with him again and again before he turned to Jane, who stood watching him with delighted eyes. "How well you are looking this afternoon, father! Your cheeks are as red as a girl's!" "Oh, I'm all right! Don't bother about me. Think of other people sometimes, child. Now, there's a matter I want to speak to you about, if I could only put it to you properly." "I am ready. Put it directly, point-blank: that is the best way in delicate questions." "Don't laugh. It's no laughing matter. It's the most serious business of my life, and I've only a few minutes to make you understand," mopping his hot forehead with his handkerchief. "The train will be due in half an hour." "The train? Serious business? The commissioner of patents is coming?--" "Damn the patents! I beg your pardon, Jane. But really--This is a request I have to make of you. A request of you from poor Will Laidley." She drew back. The weight which she had a moment ago thrown off fell on her again. "A request of me?" she said slowly. "Whatever he asked me to do I shall do. I owe him at least so much."