His frank countenance had quite a wild look, so agitated and confused was he by her swift twistings and turnings, so alarmed was he as he felt the awful danger approaching. “We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you and your affairs--or, rather, _you_ are talking about them. Keep _me_ out of this.” “But how can I?” argued she gently, looking admiringly up at him. “You’ve become the big influence in my life. If I had known you earlier I’d have been very different. Even now I feel as if a great change were coming over me----” “It’s the cold you’re catching,” interrupted he, in desperate attempt to be jocose and create a diversion. “You must go straight home.” “Chang,” she said, laying her hand on his arm, “if you were rich, instead of poor, would you talk to me like this?” “Now, Rix--stop that nonsense.” “Don’t, Chang,” she pleaded. “You realize, just as well as I do, that we’ve made a frightful mistake.” He did not venture an answer. “You knew it as soon as you saw me this morning--didn’t you?” continued she. “Yes, I saw it in your eyes. I felt it in your----” He suddenly seized her by both shoulders, looked into her eyes searchingly. “This isn’t a bit like you, Rix. What are you up to?” She simply gazed at him--a gaze he found it hard to withstand; yet he could not shift his charmed eyes. “You’re trying to lead me on. Why?” he demanded. “Because we love each other, Chang,” she said as simply and sweetly as a child. He laughed gently. “What a romancer you are! Fortunately, I’m a man. I don’t take advantage of a baby.” “I’m twenty-two.” “And as ignorant of the world as a baby,” declared he, like grandfather to grandchild. “I know what I want when I see it, just as well as you do, Chang,” she replied steadily. “Better--because you’re making me do all the talking--which isn’t gentlemanly of you.” Her eyes filled with tears--and very lovely they looked--like dew-drenched violets. “If it wasn’t that you’re holding back simply because you’re poor I’d not forgive you so easily.” He dropped his hands from her shoulders, turned away abruptly. He strode to the edge of the lake and debated with himself. When he came back to her he was serene though grave. At sight of his expression, which she had eagerly awaited, she shivered. “Rix,” he said--and all the fine frankness and simplicity of his nature were in his eyes and his voice--“it’s lucky for you that I’ve lived a little, or we might be dragging each other into a fearful mess. You think you’ve fallen in love--don’t you?” “I know it, Chang,” she answered, undaunted. “Well, I know you haven’t fallen in love with me. You’ve simply fallen in love with love. Your imagination has been giddied by this little adventure that seems so romantic to you. And the day’ll come when you’ll thank me for having had the sense to understand you and to understand that my own strong liking for you isn’t love, either.”