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 lower he kissed the inside vein of her soft arm.

Although the early September weather was sultry, her arm, from her dabbling in the curds, was as cold and damp to his mouth as a new-gathered mushroom, and tasted of the whey. But she was such a sheaf of susceptibilities that her pulse was accelerated by the touch, her blood driven to her finger-ends, and the cool arms flushed hot. Then, as though her heart had said, ‘Is coyness longer necessary? Truth is truth between man and woman, as between man and man,’ she lifted her eyes, and they beamed devotedly into his, as her lip rose in a tender half-smile.

‘Do you know why I did that, Tess?’ he said.

‘Because you love me very much!’

‘Yes, and as a preliminary to a new entreaty.’

‘Not again!’

She looked a sudden fear that her resistance might break down under her own desire.

‘O, Tessy!’ he went on, ‘I cannot think why you are so tantalizing. Why do you disappoint me so? You seem almost like a coquette, upon