"Say what you like to me. Be angry. Punish me. I cannot help it," he whispered. "Your beauty maddens me, as it has done all these weary months, and I must speak to you now." "Major Rockley, I am alone and unprotected. I ask you, as a gentleman, to leave me." "And as an officer and a gentleman I would leave you, but my passion masters me. Sweet Claire, whom I love so dearly, how can you be so cruel and so hard?" He tried to take her hand, but she shrank from him and turned back. "No, no, little one, you are not going to serve me like that!" he cried, darting before her. "Come, how can you be so absurd?" he whispered. "We are quite alone. No one can see our meeting, and yet you are trifling with me, and wasting golden moments. You know I love you." "Once more, Major Rockley, will you leave me? You insult me by staying." "No, I will not leave you," he whispered excitedly; "and I do not insult you." "I am alone now, sir, but I have a father--brothers, who shall call you to account for this!" she cried, with her eyes full of indignation. "Don't," he whispered imploringly. "You make your eyes flash and your face light up in a way that drives me frantic. Claire, if you speak to me like that again, I shall risk being seen, and take you to my heart to cover those lips with kisses. No, no; don't shrink away; only be gentle with me, and talk sensibly. Let us be closer friends, dear. Come, let there be an end to all this coy nonsense. There, we understand one another now. That's better." He seized her hand, and drew it through his arm; but, with a display of strength that he had not expected, she snatched it away, and stood pale with anger and indignation. She hurried forward the next moment, but he laughingly kept at her side. Claire turned and retreated, but he was still there; and, choking down her sobs, she walked as fast as she could towards the stile she had crossed. It seemed evident to her that the Major must know the reason for her visit to the fisherman's cottage, or he would never have dared to treat her with such bold insolence; and as she walked on he kept close beside her, pressing his suit in the most daringly insulting manner, while she ceased her protests now, and walked on in silence. "It is the only way to deal with her," he said to himself; "and, after this outburst to keep up appearances, we shall be on the best of terms." Claire had gone farther in her excitement than she had thought possible, and it seemed now that she would never reach the stile. Beyond that, there might be people who would help her; and in any case, the fishermen's cottages were not many hundred yards away. In spite of her silence, the Major kept on his passionate addresses and protestations, pleading his inability to obtain a hearing from her before; and at last, irritated by her silence, he caught her by the arm and held it fast.