own, please. Don't you
remember our agreement to be frank with each other?"

"Yes, I remember it, but frankness means the opposite of restraint."

"Yes, but frankness should always have judgment behind it."

"Guinea!" She looked at me. "Guinea, you say that after a while he will
kneel at your feet."

"Yes, after a while, Mr. Hawes."

"But let me--let me kneel at your feet now!"

Slowly she shook her head. "No, Mr. Hawes, you must never do that.
Sometime we may kneel together, but you must never kneel to me. Now we
are frank, aren't we? We may go to church together and hear some one
pray a beautiful prayer, a prayer that may seem the echo of our own
heart-throbs. Sweet is confidence, and I ask you to have confidence in
me. Let me have my way, and when the time is ripe, I will come to you
with my hands held out. Yes, when the time is ripe. And then there will
be no reproaches and nothing to forgive, but everything to worship and
to bless. Oh, I am a great talker when once I am started, Mr. Hawes, and
I think all the time. I thought this morning as I stood at the gate,
just as you left me standing; I heard you galloping down the road. And
do you know what I thought of? It was almost profane, but I thought of
the baptizing at the river of Jordan, when the spirit came down like a
dove; and I knew what must have been the thrilling touch of that spirit,
for the holiness of love had touched my hair. No, Mr. Hawes, not now.
There, sit down again and let me talk, for I am started now. Oh, and you
thought that I was dumb and feelingless? You mustn't weep; but as for
me, why, I am a woman and tears are a woman's inheritance. There, I have
said enough, and after this we must speak to each other as
friends--until the time when I shall come to you with my hands held out;
and then I am going to tell you of a woman who loved a man, not with a
halting, half-hearted love, but with a love as broad as God's smile when
the earth is in bloom. You didn't know that I was so persistent, did
you? Isn't it time for a woman to be persistent? No woman has ever kept
silence, they tell us, but women have been constrained to talk around
the subject, festooning it with their insinuating fancies. But women are
more outspoken now and are permitted to be truer to themselves. Yes, you
must have confidence in me; let me indulge my dream a while longer, and
then I will come to you, but until then let us be friends."

"But won't you let me tell you some