"Then I'm only half a flirt," said Fanny, "because I only draw a man on, without meaning to break anybody's heart." "Don't," said Lawrence. "It hurts, you know." "I wonder--" The young girl laughed a little, and turned away from his eyes. "What?" "Whether it really hurts." She bit the end of the grass blade, and slowly tore it with her teeth, looking dreamily across the brook. "Don't try it, at all events." "Mr. Brinsley doesn't seem to mind." "Brinsley isn't a human being," said Lawrence, savagely. "What is he, then?" "A fraud--of some sort. I don't care. I hate him!" "You're hard on Mr. Brinsley," observed Fanny, slowly, and watching her companion sideways. "Considering what you've been saying about him--" "I said nothing about him except that I began by liking him awfully." "Well--you left the rest to my imagination. I did as well as I could. If you didn't hate him yourself, you'd hardly have been telling me all this, would you?" "Oh--I don't know. I might be going to ask your advice about--about him." "Take him out in your boat and drown him," suggested Lawrence. "That's my advice about him." "What has he done to you, Mr. Lawrence?" enquired Fanny, gravely. "Why do you hate him so?" "Why? It's plain enough, it seems to me--plain as a--what do you call the thing?" "Plain as a marlinespike, you mean. Only it isn't. I want to know two things. Do you think I'm a flirt? And why do you want me to murder poor, innocent Mr. Brinsley? Do you mind answering?" Lawrence's dark eyes began to gleam angrily. He bit his pipe and pulled at it, though it had gone out; then he took it from his lips and answered deliberately. "If you are a flirt, Miss Trehearne, I don't wish Brinsley any further damage. He'll do very well in your hands, I'm sure. I have no anxiety." "I wouldn't hurt a fly," said Fanny. "If I liked the fly," she added. "I believe the spider said something to the same effect, when he invited the fly into his parlour." At this a dark flush rose in the girl's cheeks. "You're rude, Mr. Lawrence," she said. "I'm sorry, Miss Trehearne--but you're unkind, so you'll please to excuse me." Instead of flushing, as she did, Lawrence turned slowly pale, as was his nature. "Even if I were,--but I'm not,--that's no reason why you should be rude." "I didn't mean to be rude," answered Lawrence. "I don't see what I said that was so very dreadful." "It was much worse than anything I said," retorted Fanny, biting her blade of grass again. "Because I didn't say anything at all, you know. Oh, well--if you'll say you're sorry, we'll bury it." "I'm sorry," said Lawrence, without the least show of contrition. "I was going to tell you such lots of things about myself," said the young girl. "You've made me forget them all. What was I talking about when we began to fight? I began by saying that I liked you, and you've been horrid ever since. I won't say that again, at all events."