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172 about doing what you asked me. Give me credit for being courageous at any rate when you think of the way in which Lady Garfit would tear my character to shreds if she could see me now."

"Elsie," he exclaimed, "I believe that for a man you loved you would brave any danger. I believe that you have it in you, and that you neither know yourself nor does your world know you."

She stooped to fasten the rope on the boat—they were on shore again now. When she answered it was in a serious and altered tone.

"No, I don't think I have ever known myself. I am quite sure my world doesn't know me. And I think you are right. I do think it is in me to brave danger for the sake of a man I loved. But then I never believed it was in me to love a man like that."

"Ah!" he cried, "you know it now, and it is I who have taught you. You love me."

They were walking up the little hill to the cottage. Both paused. She turned on him her big troubled star-like eyes.

"Elsie," he repeated, triumphantly. "I have won the game; you love me."

He put out his arms and caught her to him in a wild embrace. There was something almost brutal in his impetuosity. He kissed her cheeks, her hair, and then her lips. Elsie had never dreamed of kisses so passionate and unrestrained. For a moment or two she yielded to his ardour, and then a swift and agonizing sense of humiliation overcame her. "How dare you! What right have you?" she cried—" Oh, you are cruel, you are base!"

She tore herself from him and he saw her no more.