She kept her face averted, and gazed steadily out to sea. The waves were sweeping up the wet sands until they almost reached her feet. When they came near enough to force her to move, she determined that she would then return to the hotel. She felt that she could not, while he still held her hand, make an effort of herself to rise. "Yes, I am afraid," she muttered. "I am afraid." Her lip quivered, and the hand lying unresponsively in his was icy cold. He gripped it hard. "You need not be afraid," he said. "I have only a very kindly feeling for you,--a tender feeling. I want to give you pleasure. One day you will understand. I do not wish you to be frightened of me. I want you to trust me. There isn't the slightest reason why we shouldn't be the closest of chums." "There is every reason," she answered; "the secrecy of it alone proves that. You dare not give me your friendship openly." "But it's the secrecy which makes it so jolly," he insisted. "Scuffling in the dark!" she said scornfully. He fondled her hand. "It isn't dark now," he said. "No. But there is no one to heed us. Presently we shall go back. I shall walk on ahead,--or follow--whichever suits you; and for the rest of the evening we shall be distantly formal." She faced him with an expression of hard resentment in her eyes. "You may find it amusing," she added bitterly; "but to me it is only humiliating. I wish you would leave me alone." He sat up, and drawing his knees up, clasped them with his arms. "Perverse!" he murmured, watching the encroachment of the waves with a seemingly absorbed interest, and evading the girl's scornful, accusative gaze. "And I believed she was going to be sweet... My dear girl," he exclaimed, suddenly facing about, "you have made two misstatements which it behoves me to correct. We are not going to spend a formal evening,-- we are going for a walk in the moonlight. You are not going to precede me, nor will I permit you to follow me off the beach now. We return together. It would be far more indiscreet to pursue the tactics you have laid down, as it will be far pleasanter to adopt mine. Better leave yourself in my hands, my dear. My knowledge of the world is more profound than yours. The greater length of time I have lived in it justifies that assumption. And my experience of life has taught me that to deny oneself a single pleasure for the sake of some foolish scruple is wasteful; it only brings regret, and profits one nothing. The moral is obvious." "That is an unworkable theory," she answered.