is
freeing her hand.

"I'm justified in hurting you if it's for your good," he declared
calmly. "Now let me bind it up."

While he tied up her hand, she looked at him resentfully, the colour
heightening on her cheek.

"I wish you'd often look like that," he remarked.

"I shall if you treat me so unkindly."

He took no notice of the accusation, but said:

"When you look like that it's wonderful. Then certain verses in the
'Song of Solomon' might have been written to you."

"The 'Song of Solomon'?"

"Don't you read your Bible?"

"But you said some of them might have been written to me. What do you
mean?"

"They're the finest love verses in the English language. They might
have been written to you. They're quite the best thing in the Bible."

She was perplexed, and showed it in her face; then, she looked
appealingly to him for enlightenment. He disregarded the entreaty in
her eyes. He looked at her from head to foot before saying:

"Little Mavis, little Mavis, why are you so alluring?"

"Don't talk nonsense. I'm not a bit," she replied, as something seemed
to tighten at her heart.

"You are, you are. You've soul and body, an irresistible combination,"
he declared ardently.

His words troubled her; she looked about her, large-eyed, afraid; she
did not once glance in his direction.

Then she felt his grasp upon her wrist and the pressure of his lips
upon her wounded hand.

"Forgive me: forgive me!" he cried. "But I know you never will."

"Don't, don't," she murmured.

"Are you very angry?"

"I--I--" she hesitated.

"Let me know the worst."

"I don't know," she faltered ruefully.

His face brightened.

"I'm going to ask you something," he said earnestly.

Mavis was filled with a great apprehension.

"If I weren't a bad egg, and could offer you a home worthy of you, I
wonder if you'd care to marry me?"

An exclamation of astonishment escaped her.

"I mean it," he continued, "and why not? You're true-hearted and
straight and wonderful to look at. Little Mavis is a pearl above price,
and she doesn't know it."

"Ssh! ssh!" she murmured.

"You're a rare find," he said, to add after a moment or two, "and I
know what I'm talking about."

She did not speak, but her bosom was violently disturbed, whilst a
delicious feeling crept about her heart. She repressed an inclination
to shed tears.

"Now I s'pose your upset, eh?" he remarked.

"Why should I be?" she asked with flashing eyes.

It