"I've all the time been trying to show you I'm not a beast," Keith urged at last. "But a human being. It takes a woman to be something above a human being." He was sneering, and the sneer chilled her. "If you'd been thinking of somebody for months," she began in a trembling tone. "Thinking about them all the time, living on it day after day ... just thinking about them and loving them with all your heart.... You don't know the way a woman does it. There's nothing else for them to think about. I've been thinking every minute of the day--about how you looked, and what you said; and telling myself--though I didn't believe it--that you were thinking about me just the same. And I've been planning how you'd look when I saw you again, and what we'd say and do.... You don't know what it's meant to me. You've never dreamed of it. And now to come to-night--when I ought to be at home looking after my dad. And to hear you talk about ... about a lot of other girls as if I was to take them for granted. Why, how do I know there haven't been lots of others since you saw me?" "Because I tell you it's not so," he interposed. "Because I've been thinking of you all the time." "How many days at the seaside was it? Three?" "It was enough for me. It was enough for you." "And now one evening's enough for both of us," Jenny cried sharply. "Too much!" "You'll cry your eyes out to-morrow," he warned. "Oh, to-night!" she assured him recklessly. "Because you don't love me. You throw all the blame on me; but it's your own pride that's the real trouble, Jenny. You want to come round gradually; and time's too short for it. Remember, I'm away again to-morrow. Did you forget that?" Jenny shivered. She had forgotten everything but her grievance. "How long will you be away?" she asked. "Three months at least. Does it matter?" She reproached his bitterness by a glance. "Jenny, dear," he went on; "when time's so short, is it worth while to quarrel? You see what it is: if you don't try and love me you'll go home unhappy, and we shall both be unhappy. I told you I'm not a free man. I'm not. I want to be free. I want to be free all the time; and I'm tied ..." "You're still talking about yourself," said Jenny, scornfully, on the verge of tears. vi