"All right. I won't," he said. "Not yet anyhow. But speak to me! Tell me it's all right! You're not frightened?" "I am--a little," she confessed. "Not at me! Juliet!" "No, not at you. At least," she laughed unsteadily. "I'm not quite sure. You--you--I think you must let me go for a minute--to get back my balance." "Must I?" he said. She lifted the hand she had taken and laid it against her cheek. "I've got--a good deal to say to you, Dick," she said. "You've taken me so completely by storm. Please be generous now! Please let me have--the honours of war!" "My dear!" he said. He let her go with the words, and she clasped her hands about her knees and looked out to sea. She was still trembling a little, but as he sat beside her in unbroken silence she grew gradually calmer, and presently she spoke without any apparent difficulty. "You've taken a good deal for granted, Dick, haven't you? You don't know me very well." "Don't I?" he said. "No. You've been--dreadfully headlong all through." She smiled faintly, with a touch of sadness. "You've skipped all the usual preliminaries--which isn't always wise. Don't you teach your boys to look before they leap?" "When there's time," he said. "But you know, dear, you gave the word for--the final plunge." She nodded slowly once or twice. "Yes. But I didn't expect quite--quite--Well, never mind what I expected! The fact remains, we haven't known each other long enough. No, I know we can't go back now and begin again. But, Dick, I want you--and it's for your sake as much as for my own--I want you, please, to be very patient. Will you? May I count on that?" He put out his hand to her and gently touched her shoulder. "Don't talk to me like a slave appealing to a sultan!" he said. She made a little movement towards him, but she did not turn. "I don't want to hurt you," she said. "But I'm going to ask of you something that you won't like--at all." "Well, what is it?" he said. "I want you--" she paused, then turned and resolutely faced him--"I want you to be--just friends with me again," she said. His eyes looked straight into hers. "In public you mean?" he said. "In private too," she answered. "For how long?" Swiftly he asked the question, his eyes still holding hers with a certain mastery of possession. She made a slight gesture of pleading. "Until you know me better," she said. His brows went up. "That's not a business proposition, is it? You don't really expect me to agree to that. Now do you?" "Ah! But you've got to understand," she said rather piteously. "I'm not in the least the sort of woman you think I am. I'm not--Dick, I'm not--a specially good woman." She spoke the words with painful effort, her eyes wavered before his. But in a moment, without hesitation, he had leapt to the rescue.