She glanced through the open door into the house as if to see if any one was within hearing. Then she came nearer to him, looking down on him from the higher step on which she stood, her pretty brow under a frown. "I was bothered after I went to bed," she said, frankly. "I don't think I ought to--to have kissed you as I did there at the gate. I would have scolded Ann for the same thing, even if she were as old as I am. I trust you--I can't help it--and last night I was so happy over Tobe's message that--Tell me honestly. Do you think that a man loses respect for a girl who will act as--as boldly as I did? Tell me; tell me truly." "Not if he loves her as I do you, Dolly," he said, under his breath, "and knows that she feels the same way. Don't let a little thing like that trouble you. It is really your wonderful purity that makes you even think of it." She seemed partially satisfied, for she gave him her glance more confidingly. "It is queer that I should have let it worry me so much," she said. "It was as it some inner voice were reproving me. All sorts of fears and queer ideas flocked about me. I--I am just a simple mountain girl, and you now know what my--my people are like. Why, if my father were now in prison I could not refuse to--to stick to him as a daughter should, and for a man in your position to--to--" She broke off, her eyes now on the ground. "You mustn't think any more about it," he managed to say, and rather tardily. "You can't help what he does." Mostyn's passionate gaze was fixed on her again. "How pretty, how very pretty that dress is!" he flared out. "Are you going to church this morning?" "Oh yes," she replied, half smiling down into his eyes. "I must set a good example to Ann and George." Burning under the memory of her kiss of the night before, Mostyn told himself that he must by all means see her alone that day. He must hold the delicious creature in his arms again, feel the warmth of her lips, and capture the assurance of a love the like of which was a novelty even to him. "What are you thinking about?" she suddenly demanded. "I am thinking, Dolly, that you have the most maddening mouth that ever woman had, and your eyes--" "Don't, don't!" she said, with a shudder. "I can't explain it, but, somehow, when you look and speak that way--" "I can't help it," he blurted out, warmly. "You make my very brain whirl. I can hardly look at you. It is all I can do to keep from snatching you to my arms again, even here where any one could see us. Say, darling, do me a favor. Don't go to church to-day. Make some excuse. Stay at home with me and let the others go. I have a thousand things to tell you." The slight, shifting frown on her face steadied itself. She gave him a swift glance, then avoided his amorous eyes. "Oh, I couldn't do that, _even for you_," she faltered. "They have asked me to sing in a quartette. That is why I put on this dress. The other girls are going to fix up a little." "Then you won't oblige me?"