I hardly know what you mean by unkindness. I hope I have never said
anything uncivil?"

"No; but you have let me see very plainly that you dislike me."

"I am sorry nature has given me an unpleasantly candid disposition."

Those keen gray eyes of the Captain's were watching her intently. An
angry look shot at her from under the straight dark brows--swift as an
arrow.

"You admit then that you do not like me?" he said.

Vixen paused before replying. The position was embarrassing.

"I suppose if I were ladylike and proper, I should protest that I like
you immensely; that there is no one in the world, my mother excepted,
whom I like better. But I never was particularly proper or polite,
Captain Winstanley, and I must confess there are very few people I do
like, and----"

"And I am not one of them," said the Captain.

"You have finished the sentence for me."

"That is hard upon me--no, Violet, you can never know how hard. Why
should you dislike me? You are the first woman who ever told me so"
(flushing with an indignant recollection of all his victories). "I have
done nothing to offend you. I have not been obtrusive. I have
worshipped at a distance--but the Persian's homage of the sun is not
more reverent----"

"Oh, pray don't talk about Persians and the sun," cried Violet. "I am
not worthy that you should be so concerned about my likes and dislikes.
Please think of me as an untaught inexperienced girl. Two years ago I
was a spoiled child. You don't know how my dearest father spoiled me.
It is no wonder I am rude. Remember this, and forgive me if I am too
truthful."

"You are all that is lovely," he exclaimed passionately, stung by her
scorn and fired by her beauty, almost beside himself as they stood
there in the magical moonlight--for once in his life forgetting to
calculate every move on life's chessboard. "You are too lovely for me.
From the very first, in Switzerland, when I was so happy----no, I will
not tell you. I will not lay down my heart to be trampled under your
feet."

"Don't," cried Violet, transfixing him with the angry fire of her eyes,
"for I'm afraid I should trample on it. I am not one of those gentle
creatures who go out of their way to avoid treading on worms--or other
reptiles."

"You are as cruel as you are lovely," he said, "and your cruelty is
sweeter than another woman's kindness. Violet, I laugh at your dislike.
Yes, such aversion as that is often the beginning of closest liking.